Gearing set up

[DinoD]

I've had a look to see if anyone has mentioned it already, with no luck.
I've got an old Claude Butler and enjoyed many trips with it how ever when i'm loaded with my panniers its as heavy as a tank to get up hills and inclines. a year ago i had to change the back wheel anyone and got them to put on a new cassette which is 11-34 I'm not sure what is on the crank but know its still the standard three sprockets.
Any suggestions or would it be better to sell and start off with something else?

[Brik]

How about an e-bike conversion?
I have no problem with hills...

[Paulatic]

Assuming an inner ring of 28 then you’ve a gear 28*34 around 22”.
That’s a low gear it might be worth considering putting less in the panniers or looking forward to a walk.
A new bike does give a boost for a while but can be short lived.

[Brucey]

the logic here is normally that reliability trumps weight every time on a touring bike, because the bike is only a small fraction of the total weight that you drag up every hill
To know if something different will definitely be better, first you need to know what it is that you have right now.

[JohnR]

One option is a wider range cassette with long cage derailleur which would make the bottom gear one step lower. See https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/cassettes/z ... ble-1140t/ as an example. Or can you fit smaller chainrings to the cranks and lower the front derailleur?

[rareposter]

Any suggestions or would it be better to sell and start off with something else?

Firstly, work out the gearing that you have on there - that means the number of teeth on each of the 3 chainrings and what the cassette is as well. You mentioned 11-34 but not the number of sprockets (8, 9, 10...?)

And then an idea of what sort of hills and weight you're talking about cos there's a fair difference between (say) a big Lake District pass vs Box Hill....

But without knowing what gearing you're running currently, no-one can really suggest any useful answers....

[531colin]

I've had a look to see if anyone has mentioned it already, with no luck.
..........

lots of information here.....viewtopic.php?t=158018