dmeans2anend

Cyccommute:

Thank you for all the great suggestions and comments.

I have two road bike that I ride that I'm comfortable on with long rides ( 50 miles/daily up to 150 miles/day):

A) 48 cm Specialized Ruby Pro carbon fiber frame road bike.
B) 49 cm Motobecane Fantom Cross Team Titanium Frame cyclocross bike for road touring,

I think I'm able to get away with a slightly larger frame than what you've suggested because:
i) I'm very flexible.
ii) I've shortened the stem on both of my road bikes for better reach and I feel I can get more power from my legs being extended out.

I think it may be cheaper for me to buy a new or slightly used fork than to rebuild the existing vintage fork Rock Shox Pilot Race, especially since it doesn't seem to have a lockout knob for when I'm on asphalt. What is the recommended mm of travel on a front suspension fork for someone like me (110 lbs) for something like the GDMBR? I don't have experience with suspension forks and have just recently gotten on the steep learning curve about it.

I really appreciate the video regarding the '20 Tooth Small Chain Ring'. Thank you! Definitely something that I will look into further added to my list! I am familiar with upgrading the rear cassette to 11-42 cogs using the Wolf Tooth. It's what I did on the Motobecane Cyclocross bike for the ACA Pacific Coast Route. I had a range of around 20 in to 100 in and it worked beautifully without any issues or skipping on shifting. I was able to do all the climbs without any walking or attending a sufferfest party. I was under the notion that touring bikes with a range of gear inches around 19 in to 100+ in is good. I forget if this range is just for Road Touring though? I understand lower gearing is helpful to get more traction and consistent power on pedal strokes for climbing especially on loose gravel but I just don't have a feel for the difference between say 13 gear inch vs 14 gear inches to justify whether the modifications and added cost would offer that much more advantage? Is there a formula to figure out what advantage per gear inch is reduced? What range in gear inches is recommended for the GDMBR or is typically required for mountain bike touring. I just don't have any experience on a mountain bike.

I currently own the Shimano M520 SPD pedals on my road bike and love them but I was thinking that it might not be ideal for the GDMBR since on really steep or difficult sections, I may want to just use flat pedals for greater safety in handling. I'm just speculating here..... I road the PC route with the M520 pedals and they worked great but it was again on solid asphalt where I didn't stop at all while climbing and not loose gravelly terrain like the GDMBR that may require greater starts and stops where having flat pedals would come in handy(?).

Thank you for all the gear recommendations! I will do some research on it.