Originally Posted by davidmcowan

so I'm making it up the hills at 42x15 which requires me getting out of the saddle and mashing a bit. But I feel like most other times I'm fine. Pretty much what I've read though in that my legs push it not my lungs and heart. When I hear about people operating at higher cadences with a tougher gearing I'm astounded. How do you do it? Should I be okay with the mashing and more flat speed? Or is spinning up and flatting out at a lower speed better? I want to try and do RAGBRAI in this final gear choice so I'm hoping for some input.