I agree with Jim. Anything higher than a 4-to-1 is useless to me, to be sure, and even a 4-to-1 is only useful when I am in a major hurry on descents and insist on pedaling beyond 35mph. On one bike which has a 50/34 up front, the 12 cog on a 12-27 cassette is useless, but on another bike that has a 44/30 up front, the 11 cog on an 11-26 cassette is nice to have sometimes.
On the uber-low-end, I think a 24 in front and a 32 in back (which is the lowest gear in the standard kit) is plenty low for everything but ultra loaded touring (in the very low 20s in gear inches). So spec-ing an 11-32 on a 'make it simple' build kit for an alba-bar-Rivendell is not a horrible decision at all. The person who knows they need gear inches in the teens is probably not getting the standard kit anyhow. That's my opinion, anyhow. I seriously doubt many of the buyers of that standard kit will be dissatisfied that their bike wasn't geared low enough. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rbw-owners-bunch/-/d8q-MCHQc9sJ. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
