Originally Posted by
big john
I had 4 bikes over several years which were Shimano 7 speeds with 52x42 double. I put the 28 tooth cog on all of them and in 1995, or so, I put a 39 front ring on the last of those bikes. The next 2 bikes I got were triples. Still have 1 of them.
Yep. I swapped out the 43t small ring on Mrs. Peel for a 40. And on the Circuit, I made the 13-24 into a 13-26, which doesn't seem like that big a deal, but it works a lot better. I can't go lower than 42 on the chainring, though, because as far as I can tell, 42 is the smallest Biopace chainring that fits a 130mm BCD crank.
For any real climbing, I use my more modern bikes with even wider gears.