Well, I happened to pass a group of youngsters last Saturday, as they were standing beside their bikes at a rural intersection. I couldn't resist poking a little fun and asked them as we pedaled by, "You're not a bunch of Lollygaggers, are you?" It wasn't very long before they were passing us, but they stopped for a bit where the pavement ended and the gravel began. My wife was on her nice endurance bike and I was pedaling my recumbent trike with e-assist, and we all chatted for a few minutes, and they asked us what roads we liked and they were surprised that they included some steep hills. I described the left turn from Cabin Creek Rd onto Mt Pinnacle Rd that we took, "just exploring", and they said parts of that road are a 20% grade. That's the one where we gave up and turned around. (To be clear, I use my e-assist only for keeping up with my wife, because we used to have the same pace before I got sick and was compelled to convert to three wheels for less risk of crashing.) Normally I keep a cadence of 70 or better with only a little bit of help from the torque sensor motor, but on that steep grade my cadence fell below 50 in my lowest gear and I agreed with my wife to turn around. Her lowest gear is 20.9 inches, which is why I'm investigating the possibility of a bigger cassette. The easier way to solve the problem is to change the front crankset, but we may have to simply not go up the steepest hills instead. 15% is doable, and good for character building, but not if your bike is geared for flats and rolling hills.

The only downside to having a large cassette, as far as I know, is that the steps between the gears get larger. That doesn't affect us much, because we don't ride in a group or pace line. We've noticed while touring with a group that the #1 reason people crash and fall down is that they were riding too close to someone else. If someone rides too close to me and accidentally runs into my drive side mechanics, a bent or broken derailleur hanger can ruin my bike tour; not to mention that the other person can get a fracture, etc, from the fall.

Choddo, I thought they had some steep hills in Scotland.