When I ride my mountain bike I use much taller gears (basically just the top two) and stand on the pedals way more than on the road bikes. I have not studied bike physics, but somehow it works better on the smaller frame and wheels and just doesn't work on the taller bikes. So you could say I'm a masher, and proud of it. For all the people with the snarky knee comments, I commuted this way for 10 years, and I bet I did it on my singlespeed BMX bike when I was a kid, and my knees are golden. (I've never abused them by jogging.)