"Gearing" up for the Mountains!

[VeloMel]

VeloMel, where do you ride now? What mountains do you plan to ride?

It's the grade, not the elevation. You'd probably need shorter gearing for most of the Appalachians, even the foothills, than you do for the Rockies.

Terrain is something we can tell you about, as is how to change gearing. What your legs are happy with is something that only you know. Do you like to power up hills, or sit and spin? What about on the descents (I see you're thinking about an 11T top gear)? Are you using all the gears you have now?

We are going to the White Moutain region NH. I am a decent climber, I rode in a race this year with a brutal half mile climb hitting some really steep grades 15% (3 times!) By the end I was dying for those extra gears (riding a 50-36 and 12-25) but still managed to come in 22 out of 38( I'll take that for my first race)!! Just going to the moutains for leasure fitness ride, and don't want to hang myself up by my chamois!!

[VeloMel]

I have SRAM rival, I read that the derailleur can handle 11-28....I wish I had my own personal bike mechanic...for free!

[OakLeaf]

I'd put the 34 on in front *and* the wider range cog.

You're going on the trip to have fun. You don't *have* to use the extra gears if you find you don't need them, but if you need them and don't have them, you won't have fun.

JMO.

[Cataboo]

I have SRAM rival, I read that the derailleur can handle 11-28....I wish I had my own personal bike mechanic...for free!

Actually, none of the changes we've mentioned you doing are ones that are particularly all that difficult... Changing the front chain ring to a 34 probably will just take an allen wrench. Changing the rear cassette just requires a chain whip and a rear cassette tool (basically it fits into the little ring that is on the outside of the cassette and allows you to unscrew that - the chain lets you hold the cassette in place so it won't spin when you unscrew it... but you can jury rig that with a length of chain if you have to... ) and changing the chain requires a chain tool (which is probably on your bike multi tool anyways)

There's videos on you tube on how to do all of that.