Cycling Gear Ratios – Quickest Performance gain

I suggest you practice on
I suggest you practice on some shallower gradients too, try to keep a consistent effort all the way up, control your breathing (which should be deep and using as much of your lung capacity as possible).

The other thing I’ve read when trying to get up a particularly tough climb is to see how far you get before you need a stop, have a brief rest then carry on to the top. You subsequently try to get further than where you stopped last time. Eventually you’ll be so close to the top that you can get there without stopping.

Unfortunately you won’t find anything smaller than 38t on a 130 BCD. I’d keep an eye on Bikeradar classifieds for a s/h compact chainset or post a wanted ad there.

In all seriousness. I would
In all seriousness. I would start working on your hill work. I was in the South Downs back in June and was able to take on the really steep hills with a 38/25 as a last resort. Find a hill that will set a challenge. See how long it takes to climb the try to cut a few seconds off the next time. Climb the hill in increments. Don’t just look at the summit as your target. Work your way through the gears. Don’t be in the lowest gear at the base of the hill. If you need to shed a few pounds do that. Easier climbing comes through getting miles in the legs and finding hills to climb. Stick a it. Hope you do well at Biggin Hill.

Edit – Meant to say. You might be able to get a freewheel cassette that has a 32 as the largest cog. I’m assuming that it is a seven speed you have though.

38 28 is a sort of low ratio
38 28 is a sort of low ratio but if you want lower have you thought about a triple? Take it to a LBS and ask them your options as I’ve been trawling the Shimano Tech docs and can’t find an exact match for what you describe. The brother in law has one but he is a good few miles up the road for me to just pop round and have a shooftie at what options you may have. Failing that I’m afraid it’s just a case of toughing it out and grinding your way up the hills.

As usual Sheldon Brown can
As usual Sheldon Brown can explain :
http://sheldonbrown.com/free-k7.html

Basically a freewheel has the gears attached, and a cassette is a group of rings that you ‘load’ onto the hub and are therefore interchangable. This gives greater flexibility. You might need to change the wheel like mhtt said above.

If you do go for a new cassette or front crank combo you can use a tool like this to calculate the range:
http://www.bikecalc.com/gear_ratios
you should have a range of 1.4 bottom to 3.4 top. New gears could extend your range at the top AND the bottom, but make sure you get the right number of ‘speeds’ ie, 8-speed, 9-speed, 10-speed cassette, or your shifters will jam up and be out of synch with the gears. Replacing those is a whole other story.

Whether your inner ring can
Whether your inner ring can be replaced depends on the make & model and your front derailleur capacity.

If you have a cassette at the back you could get a MTB one with 32 teeth (e.g. Shimano HG20 or SRAM PG730). If it’s a freewheel, which screws onto the hub, you would probably need a cassette-compatible wheel . Also, you may need a MTB rear derailleur to cope with the bigger cassette.

The Sora chainset mentioned (this one), would be excellent, though any compact (50/34) would be OK. You would probably need a new bottom bracket too. Unfortunately, cheap bikes are cheap for a reason.

Most importantly, to get better on hills you need to ride more hills.

if it’s 14-28 it’s probably a
if it’s 14-28 it’s probably a freewheel rather than a cassette, so there will be no going below 14 without swapping a rear wheel for a one that takes cassettes, and the choice will be quite limited, but more info is needed. Possibly shimano 2300 or the newer Claris chainset could be an option (50/34)