OP, you see this sort of opinion from people who 90% of the time havent schlepped a bike weighing 70lbs or more up a steep bugger of a hill, after a long day, with headwinds, after not sleeping well or eating enough that day.....you get my drift.

and it is not that hard to ride a heavy bike up a super steep hill at 5, 6, 7 kph, especially when you are pushing out a lot of power because the hill is 20% or whatever--and pushing in my experience is a lot harder than pedalling up with a reasonable cadence that saves your knees.


Now, to your question--it really comes down to how much your bike weighs and the steepness of the terrain. The "20-100" gear inches recommendation is pretty good most of the time, although I have ridden in places where 19 was just low enough and if I had had front panniers on, and extra food and water, I would have needed lower. That said, the 20-100 has worked well for me in nearly all situations, but a bit lower does not in any way diminish your manhood or anything like that.

One of my bikes has a 42/32/22 and I wouldnt hesitate using this bike for terrain that has numerous 15-25% grades. The 42-11 combo spins out at about 50kph or 30mph but that doesnt happen very often. I have often thought that the 46/36/26 or 24 makes a great all around crankset, especially when you have some weight on the bike, as the 36 mid ring has a nice wide range of speeds (lets say up to 30kph) that we tend to ride in for the vast majority of the time.