Originally Posted by
DrIsotope
Having walked up my fair share of dirt hills I found too steep to pedal up, no amount of gearing could have prevented it. I'm not on a mountain bike. At some point, frame geometry and the limitations of the tires become an issue, usually long before the gearing does.
3.5mph, though? I drop into that range all the time without severe problems with tires or geometry, even though my gravel bike runs slicks and uses an aggressive road posture and has absurdly long chainstays (475mm) that make it hard to control rear wheel weighting. And if that's happening to me in a 24-28, and I'm often feeling mildly bottomed out when it's happening, and knowing that there are people who climb much slower than me (on the same gradients, so the tire and geometry issues are no different)... I'm not seeing how 24-42 is necessarily a ridiculous combination.
I've never met a paved incline I couldn't manage with a 1 : 1 final.
What does "manage" mean? I basically never have to get off and walk, but I don't consider gearing to be very adequate if it's costing me loads of performance and fatigue on prolonged climbing efforts.