Bike Shopping- day 4- all about gears (I need input)
Hi guys,
So today I went into lbs and Ian put me on the fit cycle, adjusted to the draft of the frame Serotta sent him. Interesting stuff- he has now spent about 20 hours with me- amazing dedication!
We also talked about gearing. Now I'm a strong rider, but I am very big and have a tough time getting up hills on my hybrid, am a frequent user of granny gear, plus I have a bum knee right now, so I need a very low gear.
Ian had been pondering this, and thinks the jump from the easiest gear on my Hybrid (28x32) to typical easiest Road gear on a triple (20x29) is a bit too much. Mountain bike gearing would be too low, and also not high enough (I need a pretty high gear on declines and sometimes on flats, when my knee is better). So what he's proposing is giving me Shimano mountain bike gears in the front and Campy road gears in the back, for a lowest gear of 22x29. The trick is I'm getting Campy shifting, so he has to make sure the Campy shifting will work with the Shimano gears.
We figure this is temporary- my knee will get better, I'm hoping to lose some weight, so at some point, I'll switch to a standard road triple.
Does this sound right? Anyone have any insight? Pardon me if the terms I use are not precise- I learned a lot about bike anatomy and gear ratios today. It was kinda cool. :)
-Amy
