Originally Posted by IAmSam

Best thing you can do is learn to spin and to keep it up...

I live in a very flat area myself and run considerably smaller gear inches than your 42/16 gives you...but I always preferred spinning, and am growing old and infirm now ;-)

My kid has the exact same gearing as yours on his own sw8 phiksie - when we 1st built it he complained about having to pedal too fast to keep up with his buds who all ride bigger gearing...but from my experience I think 70ish G/I is a great all-around gearing and convinced him to stick with it to "spin to win." Now he is faster, even with his smaller gear ratio (which is not really all that small), than they are.

BTW - for your own good you should also read THIS...