Novice Gearing for Sa Calobra?

Can anyone give me an idea of what bottom gear my girlfriend might need for Sa Calobra?

She has only been into the bike this past year and can manage around 40 miles at a steady pace, but as yet, big climbs have still to be attempted.

She rides a Cannondale Super Six carbon thing which feels lighter than my old TVT! I am going to fit a 34t inner ring on it for her. I grovelled up the climb two years ago on my Eddy Merckx with a 39 x 26t and that was pretty tortuous and killed my feet!

I really have no clue about these modern ultra low gear ratios - "back in my day" they were only seen on touring and mountain bikes! :shock:

Any thoughts would be most appreciated.

Lo lo low gearing, brave man for taking your girlfriend up that climb, especially if it's full of queuing cars and coaches. 30 on the front and as big as you can on the rear, you can always go up if it's too low but if it's not, deaf n dumb dinners maybe the result

I'm about 25 kilos over weight, massively unfit and asthmatic and got up in under an hour on 34x28.
The missus beat me by 15 odd minutes on 39x26.

What chainset does she have? As if it's a stock compact chainset it'll probably have 34 on there already.

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I'm not gonna give you the exact answer you want and i'll go off on a tangent, but hopefully there will be something of value in my post.

I rode it in the 80s when I was a lot younger and race fit and big gears were the norm, so I managed it in 39x21 ..... not that I'm advising that. However good (or bad) you are, you just clunk to bottom and grind as best you can with whatever is on the bike.

It was probably the best descent I've ever ridden and the memories of overtaking traffic and caning it downhill are the memories that last.

Don't eat in the restaurant in the bottom like we did - it won't help on the climb back up, but in those days we didn't have the snack bar at the top - it was just an old guy selling oranges from a hut - survival food for the return over the puig.

Do take a lock, park your bike at the bottom and make a point of visiting the eroded walkway through the cliffs. Its absolutely stunning , but can be slippy in racing shoes

I'm in envy of you, looks like we won't make Majorca this year, but you can tell us how it went and let me dream a little

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Fantastic! Keep those tips coming, folks!!

She is using a SRAM chainset with 52/36 on it, but I'm fitting a 34t inner ring for her. She has a 28t bottom sprocket on an 11 speed cassette but I was thinking about fitting a cassette with a 32t bottom sprocket instead. As for the "deaf and dumb dinners" - I want to avoid them at all costs, hence begging for your help here!!

:facepalm:

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Fair decision on the gears, but you may need a medium or long arm rear mech if her bike has a standard shortarm

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She has a long arm mech fitted as standard on her bike. I had a look at it with the chain sitting on the lowest gear and there is still plenty of room to take a 32t sprocket, but thanks for pointing that out.