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.
53x11 is only ~90rpm @35mph. Doesn't seem necessary at all. In fact if you look at the 2nd place on the list, they don't hit more than 120rpm and average ~105rpm which is the equivalent of only a 50x15 or 53x16. They never touch the end of their cassette whether it was a 11 or 12. I don't doubt that you like your 53x11, and it seems plenty of people do, but it really only became common in the last ~5 years. 53x12 has been plenty for most racers for decades