Sooo I’m going on a couple of self-supported, full off road bikepacking trips soon. The main one being a 3-day ride around the White Rim trail in Canyonlands NP here in Utah. I’ve ridden it twice before but with support vehicles, so I know the terrain and the trail.
Planning on riding my RockyMountain SuziQ mid fat bike, outfit for carrying all my gear. It currently is a shamans XT 1×11 gearing setup with a 28T front single chainring and a huge rear first gear ring. Basically, it’s geared pretty low…
I’m considering bumping the front chainring up to a 32T to give me a bit more speed but worried it’ll make the climbs harder for me (we’ll be pretty loaded down with water weight). I am a pretty strong rider, and currently training for these trips, but I still do love my granny gear haha.
Any thoughts or advice?
TLDR – considering bumping up my front chainring to get more speed for long desert off road bikepacking trips.
by ikerex88
5 Comments
Imo the more the better when hauling a lot of gear. I always swap in the biggest cassette that I can without changing out too many other parts or impacting reliability (there’s some really hacky stuff you can do that does work but not something I want to stress test when on a trip)
When loaded, aim for the highest gear inch you can fit IMO.
Think to yourself how much it sucks to not be able to maintain a higher speed on the flats/downhills vs how much it sucks to not have enough gearing on the up and being forced to hike the bike. IMO, the lower gearing the better. You will be less fatigued over the course of the trip and I bet you’ll generally have a better time.
Lower gear inches for loads. Less than 20 if you can . I don’t think 1 x will do it . But who knows . There your knees baby them
I am on a 30t with a 52-11 cassette and thinking of going down to a 28t chainring for when loaded heavy. Bikepacking isn’t fast.