On my last tour, in Shetland, I found I was needing to get off the bike to push up hills more than I had previously. I put it down to a couple of things. I hadn’t been in the best of health in the months before my trip and had not been riding as much as I would have wanted to, to build up stamina. There was also the wind which seemed to be in my face for the two weeks I was there. I was pretty sure that fitness (and my age) would have been the main reason for my lack of effort on hills.

A post I read on facebook, about gearing for touring bikes got me thinking about another possible reason. Maybe my 32 teeth, single front chain-ring with 11-42 groupset is not a big enough range for my needs when touring. My mountain bike, which I mainly use around home on cycle paths and canal paths, has a 36t front and 11-32 on the rear. This is perfect for my style of riding and I have never felt that I needed any more gears. But for touring maybe I should consider extending the range of available gears. The post also suggested that the bigger gear range would also put less strain on the free-wheel mechanism when riding fully loaded. That is another consideration I should take into account when deciding how to go forward.

The chain-ring I use on my Alice is oval 32t. I have noticed a difference using the oval ring and would like to keep that. The frame will not take a bigger diameter ring but a larger outer ring should fit. Hopefully longer bolts will be all that I need for that part of the conversion. It will take a lot more investigating what the ideal ratio for the double chain ring will be and I will also need to look at the best way to fit a front derailleur as there are no brazed bosses. I should be able to find suitable shimano components, keeping all the hardware compatible.

Looks like my winter project is taking shape or at least moving on to the planning stage.