I live in a very hilly area and I would say a 6 speed is perfect since you can 'fine tune' the gears to the gradient of the hill. I also had a smaller front chain ring installed, which really hasn't affected my speed too much but allowed me to get up the hills- as a result I've lost 2 stone! Front bags are brilliant especially the brompton s-bag. I have a rack on my bike and it has allowed me to carry many things like sky boxes, duvets, holdalls, toilet roll multipacks, sacks of pasta and rice, breakfast cereals, fajita kits and bananas! But it's horses for courses!
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