Touring Gear Ratios for Wimps!

[Tigerbiten]

The only reason I've got an equal spacing of ~13.6% through all my gears is I'm using twin internal hub gears along with twin chainrings.
I did think about going half step and granny with my setup but the Schlumpf HSD at the front stops me from doing that.

If I was setting up a system using derailleur gears I would try and set them up a bit more logarithmic.
Starting at sub 10% at the top end of the range because at high speeds my power band gets narrower, hence it gets harder to spin the next gear up to speed.
As the gears drop down the range then the gear spacing wants to increase until it's around 15% at the bottom end where it's easier to spin up to the next gear.
It's just a question of where the jump between size increase occurs so that you don't get a nasty gump in usefull gear range.

[bretonbikes]

On my old Bob Jackson I built it up specifically for mountains and in those days 25 years ago I just pulled sprockets off the rack and made up my own freewheel. With a 1/2-step triple i decided on an odd combination with the bottom three close together (32/30/28) and the top pretty close (14/15/17) and then split the difference with a 23 in the middle;-) Those were the days!

[nickbrowne]

Saw this query in the latest cycling. I can say that the following does work, having ridden it for 7 years. I dont know whether the 105 5700 10sp set is still available - it was 2 years ago as I had another bike made up with it (albeit with different ratios), again by Paul Hewitt in Leyland.
Hewitt Cheviot; Avid BB7; 105 5700 10speed triple STI; 11-34 cassette ,105 rear mech 22(initially 24)/32/42. Deore front mech Gives a low gear inch of 17.5 (700c wheels). The high gear is a bit wimpy, but this isnt a road bike.
There are, I am sure, plenty of people who would say that it shouldn't work (Chris Juden amongst them) - but it does.

[reohn2]

On my old Bob Jackson I built it up specifically for mountains and in those days 25 years ago I just pulled sprockets off the rack and made up my own freewheel. With a 1/2-step triple i decided on an odd combination with the bottom three close together (32/30/28) and the top pretty close (14/15/17) and then split the difference with a 23 in the middle;-) Those were the days!

You can still do it with 7,8, and 9sp cassettes I run 15,16,17,19,21,23,25,28,32 made up from a 14-25t Tiagra and 11-32t Deore 9sp cassettes,just knock therivets out with a centre punch and reassemble the individuals sprockets on the freehub a very simple process.
I feel sure you know all that but some reading this thread may not