>>1036016I'm still rocking 3x9 setups on three of my bikes and a 2x8 on the fourth. There's not a single derailleur on my bikes that's younger than 10 years old, and it all still works like new.
If I was spec'ing a dream bike, I'd totally go with a full NOS XTR M900 groupset - triple cranks, 8-speeds cassette, PD-M737 SPD pedals, everything.
>ok maybe not the cantis>>1036034Depends entirely on what you're doing.
For casual road riding in the Santa Cruz mountains, I'd consider a 34/28 (~33.2 gear-inches) to be about the highest I'd want my low gear to be. I know people who ride with higher bottom gears; I am not that hardcore.
My monstercross bike bottoms out with a 22/28, around 22.0 gear-inches. I've debated gearing down even further with a larger MTB cassette, but I like the tighter cassette for mixed road/dirt rides and I just HTFU on steep fireroad climbs.
My mountain bike with 26" wheels rocks a 22/34 on the low end, for a stump-pulling ~17.2 gear-inches. Not necessary, but nice on days with +5k ft of steep climbing.
