Originally Posted by
spunkyj
I took a look at my bike's gearing. It's got a double chainring (40,52) and a 7 speed cassete (12-21). So my lowest gearing option is 40/21. Is this typical for a road bike?
Any thoughts on what kind of climbs I can expect to be doing with this gearing?
I personally need 34/21-24-28 to make it up hills like that. (I'm in decent shape but weigh a scant 63 kg.) 40/21 seems like a mighty tall gear.
For easier stuff in the GTA, you can try York Region (e.g. Leslie, Woodbine, Warden, Kennedy, Reesor, and York-Durham Line) anywhere north of Highway 7. Most of those routes get really nice north of Major Mackenzie. They're all mostly flat or gently rolling north-south routes that peak in elevation around Bloomington Road in Aurora.
Warden just south of Bloomington, for example, is a little less than 5% for about a kilometer. It's an easy climb that won't kick your ass and will let you get used to spinning your way up the hill. Woodbine south of Bloomington has something a little steeper. All of these routes are fairly low traffic rural two lane roads surrounded by cornfields, so they make for a really nice ride.
You should download Google Earth. It's really useful for mapping out routes and checking elevations. You can highlight sections of marked paths and inspect things like elevation change, %grade, etc. visually.
