squeaker wrote:[XAP]Bob wrote:Hills are generally ok there is no minimum speed on a trike, meaning you can gear down as far as is needed.
Good reminder that many trike manufacturers do not equip their trikes with sufficiently low gearing for touring.
I think it's more a case of bent trikes need a wider range than most derailleur can cope with.
Most standard derailleur/IHG setups default at around 5x.
That will give you a working range of around 20"-100".
Which I don't think is quite wide enough for a bent trike.
If you push the limits of a rear derailleur then it can cope with about 50t difference.
Do you split this roughly 50-50 in a triple or 33-66 in a double.
So something like a 24-36-48 triple and a 11-34 cassette or a 26-42 double and a 11-42 cassette would work to give you the range needed.
Even then you then need to right size wheel to give you the gear range you want.
20" back wheels make it easy to get silly low first gears but much over a 90" top is more tricky.
While 700C wheels are the other way around, it's hard to get a sub 20" first but a +120" top is almost standard.
This is where the non standard gear setups come in.
Like a Rohloff with a triple to give you a total of 18 unique gears.
Or a SA hub to give you 5 virtual chainring plus your cassette.
But as they're non standard, they cost more and will only be fitted if asked to.
But to learn that you need this type of non standard setup, you almost need to have ridden a bent trike a fair distance to find out exactly want you need.
It's a "Catch 22" ..........
I've pushed the limits on what easily possible with my twin chainrings on a Schlumpf HSD and a Rohloff.
It's an expensive setup but it does give me an 19X range .......
Luck .............