Originally Posted by
chaadster
Well, I use a 53/11 just about every ride at some point, and there are a trio of climbs on my regular routes where I drop to the 36t, so maybe that's why I'm having a hard time imagining such a narrow range of conditions as you ride. Just this morning I ran the 53/11 up to speeds around 35mph; on the Down Oak Valley segment, it helped me bag a 10th place trophy:
https://www.strava.com/activities/666650770
Anyway, I'm absolutely certain use of 53/11 is not a local anomaly, and if you were to look more carefully, you'd find a lot of fast riders using theirs.
This falls into my philosophy about want vs. need. In my case, I almost never use my 13 gear, and would never use an 11 gear, so my next cassette is going to be a 14-30 or 32. If you don't need it, don't get it. Other examples: if you never ride in your drops, then you probably should use a flat bar. MTB with dirt tires, but you always ride on pavement? Get rid of them and put some road tires on. Etc., etc.....