staehpj1

Yeah, we didn't get into that. The stock gearing has a low of something like 31 gear inches. I have met a few people happily touring on similar gearing even with a fairly heavy self supported load but I'd still recommend lower. If he is unloaded a super low granny may not be required, but somewhat lower gearing will be worth the effort. I suspect that crank may not take smaller inner rings. If that is the case just going with the largest cluster that your RD can handle the cog size and amount of chain wrap may be the way to go. Otoh, putting on something like the Sugino XD 600 might be a good way to go. Going with that and maybe a 12-32 cassette would give a gearing range that lots of folks have crossed the country on even heavily loaded. I was pretty heavily loaded when I rode my first tour (Trans America) with that setup and found it okay. On a few of the steepest climbs in the Appalachians and Ozarks I woulld have used a slightly lower gear if I had one, but it was adequate. Using a 24t instead of a 26t on the inner ring probably makes sense for loaded touring. For his unladen bike it should be more than adequate.

On the other hand he may be happy with the stock gearing. Now and then I meet someone doing long mileage on gearing like that or even higher who are puzzled by why folks need lower gearing. I remember a guy in camp on the Pacific coast. Folks were talking about gearing and how steep the climbs were. He had just ridden form Chicago on a bike with a double and standard road gearing doing long mileage. He said he didn't get the complaining since everyone else in camp "had triples". He seemed genuinely puzzled.