tigat Russ Roth
Thanks for the comments. I will pass them on to Chris's dad.
Chris lives just down the street from me. I ride with him regularly. He has added a lot to my life. Motivated me to up my game.
I like the 1 x 11 for him since he does not need a lot of top end. Flat cruising speed is under 20 mph. He limits himself to 25 mph or less on downhill since he has crashed a few times and wants to be cautious. But he needs more top end that the small front sprocket. I was thinking a 40 tooth front sprocket with an 11 - 42 rear cassette. We could play with the size of the front sprocket until we got the right range of gears.
Up until now, I think he has had too slow of a cadence and pushed too high of a gear. But I suspect his optimal cadence is slower. He uses platform pedals and has more of a quad pushing style rather than a spinning style.