5 years ago I was a mountain biker. Good bikes and low gears in 44/32/22 and 11/32 9 speed gears. I did a few road rides and on the steep hills I used that low gear in places. Not the ideal bike for road with front suspension and 22lbs weight so had to get the bike up slopes aswell. First road bike and a sensible Giant OCR3 with 52/42/30 and 12/26 8 Speed. Still had to find the lowest gear uphills but 22/32 is a lot lower than 30/26. Both bikes got up the hills with the difference being that the road bike was faster. Next road bike and a compact 50/34 and 12/27. Those hills that were hard on the OCR were still hard with the compact but NO harder. The bike may have been lighter and a good few grades higher in quality but it still had to be pedaled up the hills.

For me that 34/27 has been fine but after a winters layoff- the hills have got longer and now have steep bits in them. I have lost a lot of fitness and although it will improve- I am now looking to just make things a bit easier.

BUT there is a problem with going to the wider range cassettes with lower gears and that is the distance between the ratios. On the 12/27 I have on the compact the spacing between the lowest 3 gears is a 3t difference. This is compared to 1 or 2t on the higher gears. To keep cadence right- I use the gears a lot and up to the 21t is fine. Then the jump is to 24 and 27. Breaks the rhythm somewhat but if I need those gears I need them and they are there to be used. Just face it-long hill with steepness built into it and I will only use one gear. This is why I got a triple fitted to the hill bike- so I can use a 12/25 cassette- still get gears low enough and not have that jump in ratios.

But it is when I get back to the mountains that I will have a problem. For those I like a 1 to 1 ratio on gearing and used 28/28 with the triple on the OCR. However one of our prominent "Mountain" climbers in jppe had fitted a compact 50/34 along with an 11/34 cassette. It meant changing rear derailleur to a long reach version but as he found out- that 1 to 1 ratio works.

But this post started about my mate Mike. 34/25 was his lowest gear and even for me when I am fit- that gear is too tall for our hills. New cassette was needed and looking around- the lowest gear we found that would not need a rear derailleur change would be an 11/28. Once that was fitted for last Sundays ride he can climb hills and still do distance and more hills.There is a compromise in that the spacing between some of the gears is a bit high but he needs that lower gear.