Originally Posted by
MrWesson
For fitness isn't harder better?
No.
Ultimately you run into physical limits for the durations of interest (anaerobic work capacity, maximum oxygen uptake, ability to clear lactate from your blood stream).
A more efficient bicycle just means you're going a bit faster when that happens.
Fatigue is also a function of the forces involved. Where limited gearing choices force an undesirably low (_Training and Racing with a Power Meter_ has an anecdote about a racer who got dropped every time he had to spend five minutes below 70 RPM at a power he could otherwise sustain for an hour) or high cadence you may reach those limits sooner. I noticed I could ride threshold intervals on consecutive days if my cadence stayed over 90 versus somewhere around the 85 I'd naturally pedal and one tooth jumps up to the 19 cog help that without shifting becoming too ADHD or pedaling too fast too long.
"Harder" only helps if it means the difference between running out of road before the next traffic light/hill summit and not.