Originally Posted by Reeses

I've tried my granny gear before and I feel literally no resistance in pedaling and I go about 10 miles an hour while pedaling a high cadence, so I never use it. If I had only two chainrings then maybe I'd be in a little trouble (granny gear-wise), but I think with such a low gear as my lowest gear, I'll be okay.


Sorry for the inconvenience, you should be able to see the route here:
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1063802 (The red line is going, and blue line is returning)

And I'm even newer at this than you friend, with 6 months As to elevation gain and average grade. The ride is 38.2 miles long and gains + 2138 / - 2138 ft. The first 4.4mi stretch is mostly a climbing/descending/climbing/descending type thing - is it called hill repeats? hill intervals? I'm not sure.

The second part (excluding descent) averages 17% grade with a maximum of ... 20%