chainset sets on touring bikes?????? whats best to go for???

sydney1985

i have beeen checking out the chainsets on touring bikes as plan to do end to end early next year.....
was planning on getting the pearson compass toring but was a bit put off as it is 44-32-22, i don't know that much to be honest about bikes and have yet to go into a shop to ask, but i just think that is a bit low...
my next choice was the dawes ultra galaxy and that has 48-38-28...
what i want to know is does it really make much difference to the ride(up hill really!!!) and general ride???
please help this clueless man as do't want to go staright into shop not having a clue as feel they will try and sell me something more expensive than i require, i have budget of around £1400 if anyone has any tips on other bikes, would be much appreciated if someone would be able to help,
thanks.............

peterbayliss

What kind of touring are you planning on doing e.g. fully loaded for camping or credit cards and staying in B&Bs. Also where do you intend to go?
With a budget of around £1400 I think you should get a very good touring/general use bike and that the shop should change the crankset to one of choice if necessary.

Gearing choice is down to personal preference but consider the following: how much you will be carrying, the terrain, your riding style and your fitness and strength. It can also be more difficult to climb out of the saddle with a laden bike so it’s also nice to have gears you can spin up sat in the saddle.
If you’re going to hilly or mountainous areas then you will need lower gears. On the flat the extra weight makes much less difference and the extra resistance will only slow your speed a few mph.

In order to compare the difference between different setups its useful to use gear calculator or table, the lower the gear inches the lower the gear is and so easier to climb with. If you multiple the gear inches by the caddence (rpm) and 0.0029749 then you will get the speed.

One thing to note is a lowest gear such as 22-34 (18 inches) is going to have a low speed (~5 mph at 100 rpm) and it may start to be difficult to balance. 44-12 (96 inches) will have a top speed of 29 mph at a cadence of 100. Many people find 30 mph enjoy on a laden bike and are happy to free wheel at higher downhill speed.

I managed with 50-39-30 crankset and 11-34 cassettes (23 inch bottom gear) on my tour through Normandy, Brittany and Loire last year. We were carrying camping kit but tried to keep weight to a minimum, didn’t have to get off and walk at any point in France but we used maps to avoid the steepest hills. If I go touring again I think I may change the crankset for one with lower gearing as I don’t need such a high gear and a lower range may be useful, depending on how hilly the destination is.

One final point is if you get only a limited response in this forum, post in the CTC forum as there are a large number of cycle tourists registered.

Hope this helps, any more questions just ask.

sydney1985

yeah cheers thanks for your help and have now checked out that ctc site aswel which has been good aid but appreciate your help, thanks,

MichaelW

I changed from a 30/40/50 road triple to a low MTB style chainset so i could haul luggage up steep mountain trails with my spindly chicken-legs. I used a 28/38/48 on an commuter/ road bike in hilly areas.
The best chainset depends on your strength, load, terrain and your style of riding. You cant take advice from others on such a personal matter. Just try out a few options and see what works for you.

tripwire

I'm just wrangling with this problem myself. I'm planning to do some short camping tours and I'm getting the drivetrain for the tourer I'm putting together now.

The main problem I've got is that road front derailleurs for a triple setup seem to be designed around specific chainrings. The 105 one seems built to fit a 50-39-30 crankset exactly. Does it work OK to run smaller rings with these derailleurs, or are there touring mechs that work nicely with smaller rings?

andymiller

peterbayliss wrote:

One thing to note is a lowest gear such as 22-34 (18 inches) is going to have a low speed (~5 mph at 100 rpm) and it may start to be difficult to balance. 44-12 (96 inches) will have a top speed of 29 mph at a cadence of 100. Many people find 30 mph enjoy on a laden bike and are happy to free wheel at higher downhill speed.

I agree with most of your post (except I think you have more chance of getting sensible advice here rather than on the CTC forum), but I am always surprised when people talk about difficulties balancing at low speeds. I ride my bike around town and from time to time need to ride behind pedestrians walking slowly - probably slower than 3 miles an hour - it's perfectly feasible.

andrew_s

I've been settled on 48/38/24 for many years (the 24 is steel and gets swapped on after I buy the chainset with a 28).
The cassette could be 12-24 through to 12-32 depending on what I'm doing. 24/32 is good for winching a tent up a steep Alp, and 48/12 is a high enough tailwind gear for anyone (if it was high enough for Eddy Merckx, it's high enough for me).

If you want to use STI shifters and drop bars, you are better off keeping to a 48T big ring, as the road triple front mechs that you'll have to use don't do so well on the smaller 44T big chainrings that you get with MTB chainsets. 46T will just about be OK, but no lower.
If you use bar-end shifters, there's no indexing on the front and any mech will be usable.

I use a cheap & cheerful Stronglight Impact from Spa cycles, which is a rebadged Sugino XD2. It's reliable - I've used it more than chainsets that have broken on me (TA Zephyr, Shimano XT, Middleburn RS?), and square taper bottom brackets last considerably better than these new fangled Octalink or Isis things

Some people will say "it's quicker to walk than pedal a gear that low". They are wrong. If a hill is steep enough to have you riding at 3mph, you'd struggle to push a loaded touring bike at 2mph. Those people are also the sort who will ride Look pedals, and will struggle to push the bike at all without taking their shoes off.

RimTape

22,32,44 every time.
44*11 is as high as you'll ever need and so you may as well go down to 22...

Velox

Ain\'t no monkey

As has been said it depends on where you tour and what you carry. I tour fairly heavily loaded (camping, cooking and a few luxuries), usually in mountainous areas (Alps, Pyrenees) and I have old knees. I wouldn't be without 44/32/22 & 11-34). (In fact on my recent LEJOG I couldn't have managed without it especially in the Dales, eg Fleet Moss).

As for having difficulry balancing at low speed, I have no problem going uphill fully loaded at 4 kph. Some think it's easier to walk at that speed but I find it easier to pedal.

dang100

I've just done a two-week tour across Spain and France which included two biggish climbs (Pyrenees and Massif Central). I was on a Spec Tricross which runs 50x39x30 at the front and 11-34t cassette.

I found that it was just about low enough to get me over the Pyrenees but I would have struggled if it was any steeper. At the other end of the range, whenever I was going fast enough to make use of the 50x11 top gear there wasn't much point in pedaling - I was better off coasting and resting my legs a bit.

ex-pat scot

24-38-52 for me.

I need the v low ring for towing kiddy trailer or heavily loaded touring.

52 is nice as it replicates my road bike gearing for blasting along unladen

jibi

Use a rohloff

every time

tailwinds