Just wondering: how often does anyone actually use the big, monster gear when riding? It might just be that I am a massive weakling, but I find that that 11 tooth cog barely gets used on a normal day. If anything I drop into that going downhill in the big ring just to keep my legs turning over... barely use it.
At 90 rpms on a 700x25 bike that comes to 33.4 mph, according to sheldon brown (that's with a 52 chainring). According to
http://www.kreuzotter.de/english/espeed.htm that comes to 671 watts on flat ground with no wind. With even 2mph of wind, it jumps to 745. That seems to border on the superhuman... so, do you folks routinely use that big-small combo??
FWIW, at my height and weight, those numbers are more like 786 with no wind, and 871 with a breath of wind. I'm
pretty sure I can't manage that kind of output
