90 Percent of Hill Climbing is 50 Percent Half Mental

With apologies to the great Yogi Berra. But it is almost at least half true. Riding one handed, taking pictures over my shoulder while going up extremely steep hills, trying to keep the pedals turning and the bike right side up, distracted me so much that I hardly noticed the effort.

Kelly was doing his darnedest not to get caught on camera paperboying the hill; I was wobbling like crazy back and forth across the road myself, but more from lack of control.

And while I'm not recommending stupid bicycle tricks, I am serious about the distraction. I'd forgotten how nice it is to be able to take your mind off the hill sitting in front of your very slowly turning wheels. Some friendly competition, or nice scenery would serve the purpose nicely.

Except for the first week of January, I've been riding alone so far this year. My regular riding buddy Kelly finally came out of hibernation today and wanted to do the Tour de South Park, which is pretty much any variation of the hilly neighborhood rides I've been doing for the past two months. I was hoping that almost two months off the bike (but in the gym) had taken a toll on his riding.

Well, it was worse than I'd hoped, but better than I'd feared. The Bear was undroppable, but the 7 weeks of concentrating on hills did help me to keep up tolerably well.

We actually did two hills I'd never climbed before, including this one on a loop road (Southpointe Circle) which I'd, quick sensibly, only done in the other direction. One of our riding buddies lives down at the bottom of this hole, and another lives just past the top of this hill, which is still pretty well down in a hole. I can understand why they drive to the start of our rides even though that is often only a mile from here.

I like the picture but am pretty sure Kelly was just giving me a lead for picture taking.

I Won The Trifecta

Well I feel like I did anyway. If you didn't have an uncle who played the horses, here's a link to what a real trifecta is.

My new camera came in (scroll down a few posts to see why I needed one). This is the first picture with it (literally the 2nd exposure, the first was fine but I reframed a bit). The camera is a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX2. I'm very pleased with it and think the wide format mode will be nice for bicycling pictures.

It was a beautiful sunny day today with temperature reaching the upper 40's. About the only sign of the winter weather we had just three days ago was the ice you see here still holding onto the middle of Deckers Creek. You'll be hearing more about the trail that follows this creek. I'm usually not all that fond of riding rail trails, but the Deckers Creek Trail is really something else. It goes through very pretty and rugged terrain. The creek itself has some serious whitewater, which of course means elevation change. I think the grade is what makes this trail so much more fun than the usual rail trail. It's not steep, trains used to go up it after all, but you climb up from here (where the creek enters the Mon River), then have a great downhill run back. With a little luck it will be rideable next week.

I made it up Sixth Street today, the hill that kicked my butt a few weeks ago. Since the weather was so fine I headed over there for a rematch. I've been anxious to try it on the EZ-1, but snow (and ice) set in the day after I was last there and the roads just fully cleared up today. The steep part of this hill is really short (here's a post where I sized it up on a topo map), but the road is rough, narrow, and seriously steep for that short bit. I've been concentrating my riding on the steepest hills in my neighborhood these past few weeks, both for the training and to work on technique. I feel like I've improved in both ways at least a little, but I just barely got up this hill today. Still, I was glad to make it up. I'm hoping that this obsessing about hills will pay off on the more normal grades I'll be riding with my buddies this summer.

Finally, I bought a new bike today (ordered it anyway). Oh, that's four isn't it? I better quit.

Quite a day.

Last Hurrah for Winter

Forget the groundhog. I'm calling an end to this winter stuff. Over, done, enough. Spring, get to springing.

Today was the closest I've come to not getting myself out on the bike this year.

It was a lovely day for cross country skiing. Five of us went out to Coopers Rock State Forest, and the conditions were wonderful. My condition wasn't, however. I hadn't skied in a couple years. When my buddy Kelly dropped me off at the house afterwards, I wasn't sure I could walk in under my power. Then I needed a 45 minute recovery before I had enough energy to take a nap.

I did finally haul my sorry self out and onto the Burley around 4:30. The view above is looking down Kingwood Street. There was a bit of a snow globe effect going on about then (you can see it a bit if you click the picture for a bigger view). Once the wind died down it was actually pretty nice, and I started to enjoy the ride.

It has been very surprising to me how easy and pleasant riding on these slick streets has been on the recumbent. I'm not having any real trouble, even running the stock Kwests on the Burley or Primo Comet rear/Scorcher front on the EZ-1. Who would have thunk it. I am keeping my speed way, way down. At first I stuck with the low bottom bracketed EZ-1 for this sort of day, but have slowly gotten comfortable taking the Burley out also. I do unclip from the pedals when things get wooly (on either bike).

The forecast for next Sunday is 57 degrees.

I'll take it.

Fast Freddy on the Javelin

The bike is a body-socked Easy Racers Javelin with a carbon fiber Double Bubble fairing. I think this is Fast Freddy's bike shown here. The picture is from the Easy Racers fairings page.

I've been very interested in the Javelin since I first saw it on the Easy Racers site. It seems to me sort of a long wheelbase bike with a Lightning-like riding position (but not bar ergonomics). I thought the Javelin might be the ultimate answer to my hill-climbing obsession (and was frankly surprised that no one mentioned it in this BROL thread that I started). The Javelin is fairly light, and the price is very attractive.

I had the great pleasure of talking extensively with Fast Freddy Markham this week about Easy Racers bikes. I'm in the market for a new recumbent, and the Gold Rush and Javelin were high on my list. Freddy was amazingly gracious and went well beyond the call of duty gaving me helpful advice about hill climbing on recumbents in addition to telling me about their bikes.

In the past, some comments about this bike have led to a bit of confusion and fuss in the forums. I think Easy Racers is being cautious in their statements about the bike now and are just waiting for the reviews to start coming in. So, remember this is just a conversation between two bike riders talking about what they like most to talk about. Well, one does happen to be one of the fastest human beings on earth (and the other closer toward the slowest). I did, of course, ask Freddy's permission to talk about our conversation on my humble blog.

After all that, you'll probably be disappointed by all the more I have to say, but Freddy did mention a couple things I hadn't seen elsewhere, and everybody (like me) is anxious for information about this bike.

Fast Freddy said that Easy Racers has shipped about 50 of the Javelins. He mentions on this Bentrideronline Forum thread which dealers that they've shipped Javelins to so far.

Freddy has a 15 mile climb up out of the canyon at Watsonville that he has done since the 70's. Back when he was in training on the road bike, he'd time himself between two fire stations on that ride. Freddy said, "If I could make that in an hour, I was really doing good. Last year I was mostly riding the socked Javelin and I was getting times of 1:01, 1:02, 1:03. I was amazed! True, I had the advantage of the body sock, but I'm 49 years old now."

He mentioned that the climb does have flat stretches where the body-socked Javelin really helps make some speed. Still, he seemed pleased to be coming so close to his times from 20 (more?) years ago; and who wouldn't be - Fred Markham was a very competitive racer well before he became "Fast Freddy".

Freddy certainly wasn't attempting to impress me with the bike; he'd already come to the conclusion that it was less than ideal to put my excess weight on a large frame Javelin. He strongly recommended the Gold Rush (or Tour Easy) for me. But, I'd heard mention of his great times on this ride on his Javelin and asked about it.

Easy Racers seems very intent on getting a person on the right bike, to the point of discussing not only what each bike does well, but what each does not do as well. Freddy mentioned what he has also said in the forums, that the Gold Rush is more comfortable, and corners and descends better than the Javelin. "I think of the Javelin like a sports car. It's probably not the bike you'd tour on, but to go out and really push it for a few hours-it's just fast. It will really take the power."

Does the Javelin climb better than the Gold Rush? He didn't seem to have a strong inclination either way. Would a comparably equipped Gold Rush be as fast for his timed hill ride? Maybe, maybe not.

"The Javelin's strength is its straight line speed." Not just the aerodynamics, but also the position. "You're really locked in there on the Javelin and you can really put the power to it. Once in a while I could feel in in my knees. It's not like I'm going to hurt myself or anything. but that never happened on the Gold Rush."

So there you have it. If you have an aero belly and ride a large frame (like me), you'll probably want to stick with a Gold Rush, etc. For the rest of you, the decision is going to be tougher. I say "Get both".

A Truck Ate My Camera

Heck, I know it was my fault, but he could have at least slowed down and given me one of those "I'm so sorry" shrugs.

The full post on my photography blog briefly covers the cameras I'm considering as a replacement. All are bike suitable, of course. No point in repeating it here; just click the links.

A Recumbent to Replace This Wedgie?

Here's a challenge. I've got the perfect bike. Well, I would have the perfect bike if I could still ride it.

This bike has helped me put off the inevitable for several years, but my wrists won't take much time on a road bike anymore.

This is a prototype Rivendell Rambouillet, 60cm, #RB0002. "Always Willing. Ever Able", says so right on the head badge. It's a fast, comfortable road bike that will go about anywhere.

So how do I replace that bike with a recumbent?

Here's some more about the Rambouillet prototypes for anyone who's curious. I think there were 5 prototypes (mine is number 2). The prototypes are very much like the production models. The taper of the seat/chain stays is different, and the forks are slightly different. Geometry and tubing gauges are the same. AFAICR the colors were Butterscotch (mine), Beeswax, and an orange similar to the first production models. The paint was done by Joe Bell. I think mine showed up in a couple of Rivendell Readers, but I think the numbers were mixed up in some of those Readers. Here's a beeswax prototype on loan to Henry Kingman that was featured in the Reader. At one time there was a detailed web page on the Riv site about these bikes. I thought I'd copied the text, but can't find it. I'd love to hear about it if anyone can turn it up.

BTW, that picture of the Rambouillet was sadly not taken today. Here's today. The white thing in the middle is Deckers Creek. The white thing toward the right is Deckers Creek rail trail. The picture isn't black and white, but the day was. The Rambou pictures was taken about 12 miles upstream at Cascade. The riding was considerably better that day.

Original EZ-1. Who's Got One? Know Anything About Them?

I'm putting together a post about the original EZ-1 that was made in house by Easy Racers. Anybody have one? Know anything about them?

email (slightly disguised to reduce the spam harvest) to:
wvfiddler AT comcast DOT net

A Day for a Daydream

The forecast for this afternoon was 1/4 to 1/2 inch of ICE. I took my ride ASAP and haven't opened the door since. I don't even want to know what's out there.

I had a great day inspite of that. I had a good ride, then when I got back I called Easy Racers to get some info about the EZ-1's that were built in their shop and had a nice long talk with a fellow named Freddy who seems to know an awful lot about Easy Racers. Yes, that Freddy. In addition to some info on the EZ-1, Fast Freddy gave me a lot of tips about hill climbing on bents, training, recumbents in general, and a report on the Javelin that he's been riding. That made my day/week/month. More to come on that very soon.

But today was a wedgie day. I was planning to ride a mountain bike, but my old errand bike was on the stand and ready to roll, so I took it. The picture is Elm Street, just one block over from Linden Street that I blogged about the last couple days. I think it may even be a little steeper than Linden, but wider and better surface, so I'm anxious to try it. Today was not the day. Grand Street's the main drag, a couple blocks over, and was completely clear, so I went up it. I was surprised that it didn't seem any easier climbing on the upright. I don't know if I was any faster or not, but I did pass one person--well, he was walking, but still...

This bike is pretty elegant for an errand bike. It is an old English R.E.W. (Ralph) Reynolds (the makers name, but made from Reynolds 531 also) frame that I got from a friend. The seat tube was damaged by a heavy handed mechanic trying to free up a stuck seatpost about 20 years ago. Click for a bigger view and you'll see the bandage I put on the tube.

Since I've had it, the bike has had drop bars, "priest bars" and Albatross bars from Rivendell, and now Moustache bars. The Carradice bag is a model that was made for Rivendell a few years ago.














It's a lovely bike inspite of the rough life it has led. The handlebars are great for around town riding, but even worse for my wrist/hand problems than drops, so back to recumbents tomorrow (here, for sure, and hopefully on the road too).

Ditto.

It's weird. Yesterday I ventured up a street that I hadn't ridden in 20 years. I used to live here at the top of Linden Street, just off the left side of the photo. I go by this street on almost all of these neighborhood rides I've been doing lately, but think I'd blocked the street out since I'd decided I didn't feel safe riding up it (except maybe on a mt. bike).

The street is steep (something a bit over 20 percent); it is also narrow, and the surface isn't great. It's odd that it doesn't look all that steep here; it sure does from the bottom. This is the steepest pitch, right at the end. That last time I rode up here my chain skipped on the freewheel and I did a face plant right about at this spot. It hurt.

Yesterday I was riding by on the EZ-1 just one block down the hill and realized that even if I couldn't make it up I could probably get my feet down, and even if I didn't I'd be close to the ground and would hit something a lot less vulnerable than my face. I know that seems sort of obvious, but it is a bit of a breakthrough for me, realizing that it probably won't hurt (literally) to try.

I could just get up it (and was only doing this last block). I didn't have any particular problem, but it just seems right at the limit of what I can pedal with my 23 inch low gear. The front wheel starts to get light on the EZ-1, but I'm leaning forward a bit anyway and it's not too bad.

I was very pleased to have ridden it, not so much because it was difficult (which it always is), but I guess because it was like making up with an old friend you'd fallen out with.

This is one street that I thought I'd never attempt on the Burley (or any bike with a higher BB). I did go back today to check the grade since from the top it looked like the end of the lower block is actually steeper (it isn't, but click the picture for a bigger view to see what I mean). I was able to get up that lower block just fine on the Burley since the street is wider and the surface better there. I was totally whupped after just that one block so detoured around a little, but finally felt compelled to give the top block a try. It was fine too, well I made it up anyway.

I would have sworn to you just yesterday that I could not ride that street on a higher BB bike. It is certainly less spooky to take on a street like this with the low pedals on the EZ-1, but once again, as far as difficulty goes, the cushier seat back on the Burley seemed like the biggest difference between the bikes. I've become a real fan of the Cobra style rigid seat, and will tell you some of the other things I like about it later (and a fix for one of the things I don't like).

So for now, what I said Feb 9, the bike isn't making much difference on these steep streets (other than handling); I'm still having to turn the pedals over all by myself. I expect much bigger difference when the weather breaks and I can get out for some faster, but hilly, rides. Of course I was wrong yesterday, so I'll just have to wait and give it a try. It can't hurt (much).

It's Not the Bike, or maybe it is...

One of the things that continues to baffle me is just how much difference the bike makes in getting up a hill. Stories and comparisons abound, but it's hard to really nail anything down.

I'd thought for some time that my Easy Racers EZ-1 (not the Sun-made bike) climbs a little better than my Burley Canto, but I'm just not so sure of that anymore, at least as regards really steep hills.

I've been playing around on this short, but quite steep, Wabash Street over the past week, riding it a couple different days on each of the two bikes. The first day I was out on the Canto. I was a little surprised to make it up and thought that it will be a piece of cake on the EZ-1. Actually it feels about the same on both. I'm down to walking speed on either and can turn the pedals over okay, but don't have much left over.

Here are the few things I am pretty sure of:

The seat back makes a heck of a difference. My EZ-1 has the original, very rigid-backed Cobra style seat. It is a really solid support when you are down to mashing the pedals instead of spinning. The first ride I took on my Burley, I could hardly get up steep hills at all, the seat back was so flexy. The speed struts really helped, and it also makes a big difference keeping the seat back mesh tightened up. You'd have to have a pretty whippy bike for the frame to flex as much as some recumbent seat backs do (the frame on my old Infinity probably did flex that much). And I don't think as much of this seat flex gets returned to the pedals as it does with frame flex. The comfortable seat back materials in particular seem to just soak up power without giving it back.

Handling makes a big difference too when the going gets slow. The EZ-1 is hard to beat at that point. It's hard to imagine an easier to handle bike on a really steep pitch, plus it sure is nice to have your feet close to the ground. The Burley converts from LWB to SWB and handles fine both ways. I actually prefer the long wheelbase for really steep climbs since there is no chance of your feet hitting the tire. In the LWB mode the bottom bracket it also just a touch lower and the seat just a bit less reclined. Not a big difference, but I slightly prefer that too on steep hills. On the very steepest grades that I encounter, neither bike suits me perfectly. The front wheel gets light on the EZ-1 (I have the seat pretty far back), and the handling and higher bottom bracket start to be a handful on the Burley.

Both frames seem plenty stiff and I just don't see how I could be losing much energy there.

Obviously, really low gears can be great. The Rans V-Rex I rode for while had a 3 speed rear hub, plus the 21 speed derailleur gears. You could really pedal up anything that you could keep the bike upright on with that setup. Both of my current bikes could stand a touch lower gearing.

Many people spend a fortune to shave a few ounces off their bikes, but it just doesn't seem like a big deal to me-at least not a few pounds difference. Neither of my bikes is light. My EZ-1 is a lot lighter than the Sun made EZ-1 SC (a bit lighter even than their aluminum version). The Burley probably weighs quite a bit more, but I don't really know. A light bike has a great responsive feel when climbing, but you are still carrying the whole load up the hill.

There are online calculators that will show you how much time you gain or lose with weight, and it isn't all that much for small changes. Bike weight doesn't even come into the calculation, just total weight. The lighter you are the more difference a couple pounds will make to the GVW (gross vehicular weight--very gross in the case of some of us).

Lots of other things probably do matter, like body angle to the pedals, but I really haven't got a grasp on them yet. I'm always anxious to hear from people who have explored this sort of thing. I'm still ready, even anxious, to believe in some bike magic for hill climbing; I just haven't found it yet.

Slip Sliding Riding

Well dagnabit it's still winter. I guess those 60 degree days during the first week of the year gave me unrealistic expectations. I doubt that I would have hopped onto this idea of riding every day if it had been 6 degrees instead of 60 on January 1st.

The funny thing is that even though I have a heck of a time motivating myself out the door some days, I'm really enjoying each and every ride. Today's was short; I wasn't feeling great and was probably only out for 45 minutes or so.

It looked like it was going to be a mountain bike day, but the main roads seemed mostly clear of snow, so I took the EZ-1 and just tooled around the neighborhood for a while. It turns out that all of the side streets had snow and ice, but I wasn't in any hurry and found it kind of fun seeing what I could ride with a 451 Primo Comet rear tire. I actually had surprisingly little trouble.

It's odd how you get these ideas of what you can't do, and then of course they are true because you think they are. Since I was just out playing around, was low to the ground anyway, and didn't have traffic to worry about I got over my fear of falling. And I didn't fall. Oh, I put my foot down once in a while, but that was it.

I saw these kids out goofing around and having a great time. The were just going around he neighborhood shoveling snow for fun. They slid down this steep alley a couple times then went off and shovelled some sidewalks and driveways. No knocking on doors or money changing hands (and I suppose someone shelling out hard cash may have expected a bit more linear concept of snow shovelling); they were just having fun. So was I.

So, of course I tried this hill, and I actually made it to 10 feet or so from the top--way, way farther than I imagined possible (it wasn't easy walking the last bit in my Diadora mt. biking shoes). The kids were tagging right along behind (and not having any trouble keeping up). They know fun when they see it.

Summer Dreaming

One of the best rides I've ever done goes over Chestnut Ridge. That's it in the far distance in the picture. Here we should be looking right about at Coopers Rock State Forest. Between that ridge and the closer hill is the Cheat River canyon.

I've only done this ride one time, but I'm looking forward to trying it on a bent this year. The ride goes up a steep back road to the top of the ridge, then down the other side toward the Big Sandy Creek at Rockville-just a few cabins. From there you can you can detour down an old logging road (more of a rough path now) to see Wonder Falls and Big Splat. Those last two links just take you further down on the Big Sandy page; it's well worth a look.

From the Rockville bridge you head back up on a dirt road, then some good pavement on top before heading down into the Cheat Canyon. The steep and rough dirt road takes you to the Jenkinsburg Bridge over the Cheat. This bridge is closed to vehicles and is a popular destination for risky extreme rope swings. The Big Sandy joins the Cheat here. There is great swimming near the bridge and at Blue Hole just up the Big Sandy.

Now it's just up and out. There are some amazing steep drop offs along the road out. Usually someone manages to drive a car off the side once every year or two. The road would take you to Masontown, W.Va. but we turn onto Ridge Road about half way up. One of my buddies on this ride was ridiculing the other two of us early in the ride for our triple chainrings. After walking up Ridge Road he had the local shop put a triple on his bike the very next day.

Then a nice long decent back to the start. The longest 30 miles I've ever done, but also the finest.

It was 9 F for my ride today when I took the picture at the top of this post. That was just about when the wind blew my bike over, breaking the kickstand off. I can hardly wait until summer (well, even spring, but this ride is for hot, muggy summer). I can feel the heat and sweat right now.

The Curious Incident of the Car in the Street

But there were no cars in the street.

Exactly!

Further investigation has revealed that a sporting event has been staged as a way to open the streets to bicyclists for at least one day a year. It is a brilliant ploy and seems quite effective; about the only fossil fuel burners stirring today were emergency vehicles (like pizza delivery vans).

This, of course, has my full support, but I do wish the organizers would take the weather into account. At 17 F with wind gusts to 24 mph, it was nippy here, and I'm sure it was colder in other parts of the country.

Those empty streets did get me to stay out longer on my ride than I had expected. Here's a view looking toward Preston County, W. Va. from the top of my neighborhood hill. Click the picture for a bigger view. There's some great bicycling out there just waiting for warm weather.

Recommended headgear for reading this post here.

Topo! Topo! Topo!

Yesterday was a bit warmer than the previous several days, but I didn't have much get up and go. I knew I needed a recovery day or two without any hills, but was hoping that I could put it off until the cold snap that starts tomorrow.

I did take a bit of a ride and ran into local bike, hike, greenspace activist Greg Good. I'd been curious about the relative elevation of different spots in the area and had intended to call Greg anyway, so it was a nice coincidence. Greg suggested TopoZone.com as a good source. Check them out for online and printable topo maps of any spot in the US. I haven't spent enough time there to know what all is possible under the free service, but just being able to see the topo maps is great in itself.

Greg mentioned being able to click on points to compare elevation, but my impression is that you have to join their TopoZone Pro pay service for that capability. Being a cheapskate frugal, I dug out the old topo maps from my long ago hiking days and practiced up on reading them.

I'm using the USGS Morgantown North Quadrangle, 7.5 Minute Series map 1st produced in 1957 and "photorevised" in 1976. You wouldn't want to be using this to find the local features anymore, but most of the hills are still here. The contour lines represent 20 feet of elevation with bolder lines at the even 100 foot intervals.

I've been obsessing about Sixth Street so I thought I'd take a look at it on the map since it's been too slippery out for me to have another go at it on the bike. You can click the image at the right for a really detailed view. I've circled in yellow the spot where the bottom of Sixth Street crosses the rail trail. The upper yellow circle is the intersection shown in the photos in my earlier post. The heavy red line is a busy major through street, but luckily there is a stop light. Counting from there, you can see that the first block gains less than forty feet of elevation. The second block is a bit steeper, then about 70 feet of elevation in the final block.

The rail trail is at about 830 feet above sea level here and the second yellow mark is about 980 (the darker red contour line about midway between the points is 900 feet). We're getting well past the limits of my math skills here, but I'll venture an estimate that the bike actually travels about 1300 feet between these points and that the average grade is a little under 12 percent. Of course the final block isn't average , with a good chunk of the total elevation gain there.

My best guess while on the hill was 25 percent for the last block (a "one in four"-one foot of elevation for every four feet of travel). The numbers seem to show it being even steeper, but topo maps are not absolutely precise to this level.

I hope this gives you an idea of the fun and useful information you can pull from these maps. Check out the great info at the U.S. Geological Survey website, search for online maps at TopoZone, or check Google and see what you can come up with. Then you can curl up by the fire and plan those summer rides.

More Gears Stuff

I think I left the impression with yesterday's post that I really didn't get much out of my messing around experiment with bigger gears. Really, I think trying something different like this is pretty useful.

Now I know what it feels like to be in one gear higher than is really practical for me on a hill. If I get to that same feel with my lowest gear I'll know about what I need to do about it. I know that on the Sixth Street hill that kicked my butt a couple days ago it felt about as hard to push the pedals as it did trying to get up Jefferson Street in the middle ring did yesterday (I could probably do it but might hurt myself trying). So if I look at the percentages to the other gears I've used on Jefferson Street, then I can make a good guess that I could make it up Sixth Street okay with a 19.5" gear, but it would take a 17" gear to make it comfortable.

Of course there are a lot of variables, but now I've got pretty good idea of what I need. Happily, that agrees closely with what my intuition said. I'd been hoping to get my low to around 18.5 to 19.5. The problem of course is that to get the change I want I would need to go from my 32T rear cog to a 40T to get to about a 19" gear. Things are a little better on the front where going from my 30T ring (standard road triple) to a 24T would get me to the same place. Handily, 24T is the smallest ring that most road and touring triples will take. So I'm good to go. Well, shifting might be worse, but should be okay with grip shifters or bar-end shifters. A 34T rear combined with the 24T front would even get me to about 18 gear inches, but on my 8 speed rear I prefer the 32T cassette. If you have a 700C rear wheel you're going to need that 34T rear to get down to 19 gear inches.

I'm using a simple spreadsheet to play with these gear variables, but there are plenty of good gear inch calculators on the web.