RiddleOfSteel

Definitely. A steep hill is very slow to go up, but conversely very fast to ride down. I intend to have my dessert! As a non-climber, and as a rider that runs at a medium cadence (as opposed to being a spinner, though I can hit 120 rpm), flying down a hill is the reward for all the suffering going up hill. There are a ton of steep (5-10% up to 18%) grades everywhere you look and ride, and anything over 5% as a downhill will have me spinning up to a 53-12 or 53-11 soon enough. I greatly dislike spinning out at the start of the hill and simply coasting the rest of the way. A few years ago when a group of us rode Hurricane Ridge, I was not about to putt down that grade slowly. Initially I thought I'd take it easy, but as soon as the cars in front ditched us, I ditched everyone else as I knew I had a 53-11 top end and this would be the one mega huge chance to go top speed over 17 miles. I spun out that gear past 120 rpm (45+ mph calculated). It was essentially the most fun I've had on a bike.