gear question to you mechanical geniuses!

[indysteel]

Thanks for the compliment Mimi. Can someone explain the Secret Sister thing to me BTW (not to hijack this thread).

Back to the thread. The Sugino set up previously mentioned is interesting. SadieKate, you indicated chainrings of 26-26-42. Is that a mistake? I'd love to have a set up--either as a double or triple--where my big ring was a 42. That's my middle ring currently, and I'm in it 99% of the time. I'd like to think that I'll someday make good use of my big ring, but I'm not right now.

Kate

[SadieKate]

I originally said 26/26/48 but meant 26/36/48.

For those of us in hilly country, running a 40 or 42 middle chainring means we may be constantly shifting between the middle and the inner rings. By lowering the entire chainring range, you can stay in your middle chain ring more. This gives you really great options of 1) using a smaller cassette cluster in back when you have rides that are mostly flat - lots of minute differences optimal for flatland riding and 2) a big platter size cassette for huge mountain rides or loaded touring - mtn cassettes usually have a very small cog so you get a bigger gear at the top of the range. You should go to Sheldon Brown's site to play with the gear calculator there.

Peter White and Yellow Jersey both sell the Sugino crank.
http://www.yellowjersey.org/cranx2.html

I've been watching a lot of women lately, and in non-race situations, they are very rarely in the large 52 chainring unless they are going down a long hill where they are actually pedaling to produce more power. I frequently see people in their big chainring and completely cross-geared. I get the heck out of there so I don't have to pick up the pieces when they break a chain.

If you want a 42 on the outer, you'll probably need a mountain bike crankset. I'm not sure how small you can go on a compact double road crank.

[mimitabby]

I originally said 26/26/48 but meant 26/36/48.

For those of us in hilly country, running a 40 or 42 middle chainring means we may be constantly shifting between the middle and the inner rings. By lowering the entire chainring range, you can stay in your middle chain ring more. This gives you really great options of 1) using a smaller cassette cluster in back when you have rides that are mostly flat - lots of minute differences optimal for flatland riding and 2) a big platter size cassette for huge mountain rides or loaded touring - mtn cassettes usually have a very small cog so you get a bigger gear at the top of the range. You should go to Sheldon Brown's site to play with the gear calculator there.

Peter White and Yellow Jersey both sell the Sugino crank.
http://www.yellowjersey.org/cranx2.html

I've been watching a lot of women lately, and in non-race situations, they are very rarely in the large 52 chainring unless they are going down a long hill where they are actually pedaling to product more power. I frequently see people in their big chainring and completely cross-geared. I get the heck out of there so I don't have to pick up the pieces when they break a chain.

If you want a 42 on the outer, you'll probably need a mountain bike crankset. I'm not sure how small you can go on a compact double road crank.

okay, i am doing my homework. on my bianchi now is a 30/42/52 in the front and a 13-26 in the back. You're quite right, I will probably never get it to the fastest gears. But I'm not sure i want mountain bike gears either.
A strong consideration for me is that I am doing okay on the hills here with this configuration, so as long as the top end wasn't so much lower that I ran out of gears, it would be great to have MORE USABLE gearing on another bike.