Originally Posted by
McBTC
A 1:1 (a little over 26") is about as low a gear as most would ever need on a road bike. There could be some use for a lower gear on an offroad bike but 15 inches... at 90 rpm that would be a lot of furious effort for just ~4 mph.
That's simply not true for a loaded touring bike for many tourists. There are a lot of threads on that topic and there is no consensus that a 26 inch gear is all that is needed. A lot of tourists prefer to have a low gear to spin up a long climb with rather than walk. This is a topic that has been frequently discussed and more than few experienced tourists will disagree with you.
I did a cross country tour when I was pretty fit a few years back. At the time I was doing all the local training races. I had around a 26 inch low gear and I did not think it was low enough for that trip. I sure as heck wouldn't use that high a gear again since I like my knees just fine.