We arrived at a little after 8; they had a Litespeed bike for me.
I know some Litespeeds have titanium frames, but I don't know if this one was
'Ti'.
I was more interested in the gearing anyway.
My road bike has a low gear of 30×23 for a ratio of about 1.3, and I
knew that in my current shape, I would have no difficulty climbing for a long
time on the 30×23 as long as the grade wasn't more than about 6%.
I'd done a fair bit of research online and was pretty sure that for most of the
ride the grade wouldn't be any more than that.
I had been told, though, that the crater road has one 4- to 5-mile section of
about 8% grade.
<img src="../images/02_litespeed_med.jpg" align="left"/>
So I made a point of checking the gearing on the Litespeed.
It had Ultegra components with a cassette that went up to 27 in the back.
Donnie (the shop owner) claimed the small chainring on the front was a 32, but
I'm pretty sure the standard Ultegra triple has a 30-tooth small chainring.
The bike gave me at worst-case low gear at 32&times;27, about 1.18, and if it
was a 30 at front that was about 1.11, noticeably lower than what I was used
to.
Either way, I knew I'd be fine on the 8% grade with the lower gearing.