bbaker003

Need lower gears on 2018 Kona DL (50/34 and 11-32, 27-28 gear inched lowest gear). Need low 20s gear inches. Ideas, suggestions?

CargoDane

Smaller chainrings? Larger cogs on a new cassette? Those are the options. I figure it is possible cheaper to swap out the chainrings.

dsbrantjr

Triple?

Digger Goreman

Yeah, I think a smaller chainring. My cassette (on a 26") is 11-34. I have a triple 22-32-42 and don't reach the 20's GI till 32/30 (28 GI), 32/34 (25 GI); then have to granny it 22/20, 23, 26, 30, 34 yields Gear Inches of 29, 25, 22, 19, 17.

Racing Dan

To get to low 20s gears you need at 30t crank and a 36t cassette, or a 34t crank and a 42t cassette.

Iride01 

That bike has a Shimano Sora crankset on it that has the 4 spoke sculpted spider doesn't it? You'll likely find it cheaper to just buy a new crankset than chainwheels if you want all the contouring and colors to match up.

You'll have to find something that has a 25 tooth or less small ring on it. I don't know what that is going to do for min/max cog and other specs for the rear DR you have. You might even have to change front DR. So learn what all those DR specs mean.

Realize that at 25front and 32 back, you'll only be going 3.7 miles per hour at 60 RPM. My wife and I walk faster than that. Even at 100 RPM you'd only go 6.1 mph. I'd overheat on a cold day doing that much work to go that slow.

A cassette change will probably be the easiest and cheapest to try, but likely only a 34 tooth will be your max tooth size for the DR you have. Might work with a 36 and a wolftooth hanger. But even those tooth counts don't get you to 20 gear inches.

cxwrench

What kind of hills are you riding? You'd need to go to a sub-compact crank. You don't want to exceed 16t between large and small rings or the shifting wll absolutely suck. A 46/30 crank with an 11/34 cassette will get you about a 24" low gear. Much lower than that and you're better off walking.
How ya gonna do that w/o replacing the whole drivetrain and taking a big step backwards in technology/age of components?

CargoDane

When it is more worth walking than cycling depends on how much you carry. If he is carrying a lot (i.e. use his bike for touring or whatever), 24 gear inches as the lowest is not that low, and may turn out is not low enough. I have under 18 inches on mine, and at times, it is "just enough". Getting off and pushing will be even harder - especially if there is snow, mud or loose gravel.
In the end, though, it is what someone is comfortable with. There is no set gear inches that is an absolute minimum.
But what you will quickly find is that a lot of bike packers and bike tourers are quite a ways below 24".
Other than that, I agree that it very much depends on what/where he rides.

DorkDisk

+1 on 46/30 sub compact crank with 36t cassette. Keep in mind that a few 46/30 cranks, such as GRX, have a +2.5mm chainline in comparison to a road crank, which might need a new front derailleur (YMMV). I think Easton cranks have a road chainline.

bbaker003

I want these lower gears for touring. I’ve toured in many states, but no longer have my Trek 520. I had a low gear of 20-21 and there where times I wished it was lower, though I would have no doubt tipped over going less than 4mph 😊. I’m looking at triple and adding a 34 on the cassette. I’ve been using the Kona for graver/dirt and easy mountain trails. It will be a good touring bike when I get the lower gears. 23-4 gear inches I can live with. Thank all of you for your ideas and advice!

Pop N Wood

I have the same problem as you. Chances are your front chainrings are 110 mm BCD, so 34 is the smallest chainring available for that. I did put on a 34t rear cassette, and even swapped to 650b wheels to get slightly lower, but to get the big jump will need a new crank.

As mentioned above Shimano GRX cranks go down to 30t, but good luck finding one. Shimano says it needs the matching derailleur, too new yet to find posts of someone who made it work with a regular FD. FSA makes an Omega crank with a 30t option, but it has some weird bottom bracket standard that many don't like. Praxis makes a crank with 32t proprietary small ring on a 110 BCD.

Gravel bike are starting to embrace the sub-compact cranks so have to hope some other options will be opening up.

DorkDisk

FWIW I have one GRX crank shifting fine with a 600 front derailleur, but its friction. GRX cranks are back in stock.

mack_turtle

Kona DL what? they make a few bikes with the designation "DL."

you should be able to get a slightly wider range cassette on there. 11-36 maybe? you'll probably need a new chain.

you might be able to put a "mountain" double crankset on it as well, which might have smaller chainrings like 26/38. that limits your high gear, but everything is going to require some sort of compromise.

that could work, but might not be worth the expense: new crankset, new front derailer, new chain, new shifter. a cassette with a little more range might be worth it.

djb

As a touring guy, yes you'll want about 20 gear inches for a low, but start adding up costs to see if it's worth it.
good luck with figuring out the technical aspects of changing stuff.
I've toured a lot on various bikes with various low gears, and as you say, wanting lower than 20 g.i. is very common.

And I've spent countless hours going uphill at 5,6,7 kph , especially in places in Latin America, but even riding locally. Depends on your bike weight and the hills.....

HillRider

Yes, but can you walk that fast up a steep hill pushing your bike?

djb

indeed, and for the other guy, can you do this while pushing a loaded touring bike, AND not whack your shins on the pedals.
been there, done that

CargoDane

And if your pedals are platforms with sharp pins, you will soon have holes on your shins.

HTupolev

Depends. The only things that would absolutely have to be replaced are the front shifter and the crankset. If the shifter was replaced with a 3x indexed brifter, it's possible that the FD would need to be replaced in order to get good results; alternately, this would be less likely if you just threw a friction shifter at it. After all that, if the rear derailleur's wrap was making it poorly-behaved, you might have to swap it for an RD-T3000 or similar (I'm assuming that the OP has the 9-speed DL).

Triples aren't a step backwards in technology, they're just losing importance as increases in the number of rear cogs allows 2x and 1x to cover more people's use cases.

Switching to a triple wouldn't require using old components either, there are quite a few triples still out there new. Using old stuff is certainly an option though, and I'm not sure why you're implying that it would be a bad one.

3.7mph is a pretty darn strenuous "walk" when pushing a bicycle up a 20% gradient...

cxwrench

Almost certainly. The triple derailleur cage is a lot lower at the rear so it will work w/ the smaller inside ring. A double derailleur will nearly always have drag if you use it w/ a triple.

HTupolev

Very frequently that's just not a real issue, and it really depends on the particulars. Some people actually prefer 2x FDs for customized triple setups over 3x FDs because 2x derailleurs have less extreme shaping specific to particular chainring combos. Right now I have an FD-CX70 on my gravel bike with its 48-38-24 arrangement, and it does the job quite well. There is a big of drag in the small-small area, but only to the degree that it creates noise and makes the front derailleur dirtier if I cross-chain, it doesn't cause any real issues and I generally avoid it anyway.

Pop N Wood

Thanks for the info

tyrion

If that bike has a 9 speed Alivio RD, I think you can just get a 11-36 cassette - that's the cheapest, easiest option. If that's not low enough gearing, you need a new crankset, like a 46-30 crankset.

DorkDisk

My guess is that newer derailleurs have a more limited range of motion. That was my experience on another bike trying to use a modern triple front derailleur (Deore) with a modern double XT crank (no go-too far out) whereas a vintage XT 732 worked fine with that same crank.

cyccommute 

The chainline could be adjusted by just moving spacers around on the bottom bracket. That’s what I’ve done on my road bikes while running mountain bike cranks.

Alternatively...and perhaps cheaper...an older external bottom bracket mountain crank might work. If it’s a triple, you just have to remove the inner ring and run it as a double. Here’s the gearing with a 42/32 and and 11-36 cassette compared to the current 50/34. The high gear is only 106” but, honestly, having a 126” high gear is overkill. I love going fast down hill but 126” is not all that useful even if you like fast downhill. The only issue I see with the 11-36 is that the OEM derailer might not handle it. I put a Wolftooth Roadlink on my touring bike to accommodate a 36 tooth cog. My rear derailer is an older 9 speed one with a 34 tooth max but the Roadlink works very well.

DorkDisk

The thing is that GRX and road hollowtech II BB's don't use spacers.