cyccommute 

There are places where it would come in handy. As I pointed out above, the 18x30 is a 16” gear which is low. My 20x36 is a 15” gear and I do use it and do like it.

On my bikepacking bike, I have a slightly lower gear due to the 26” wheels but I would like something even lower. While we don’t usually put large grades on paved roads here in Colorado, the gloves come off when it comes to dirt. When that attack chihuahua becomes an attack Great Dane by the combination of steep roads and high altitude, there’s almost no gear that is low enough. I’m not sure there is a gear that will allow me to ride a 25% grade at about an inch below 12,000 feet

Untitled by Stuart Black, on Flickr

The sky is so blue because that’s just the darkness of space.

phughes

Yeah, I love those comments about Iowa. Having grown up in Southeastern Iowa, I know there are plenty of hills there that are challenging especially with a loaded touring bike. Western Iowa near Omaha can be bad too. Of course people with touring bikes don't just stay in their state either.

I live in Wester PA now, where there are nothing but hills, but never discount Iowa for hills.

RoLo50312

I have lived in Iowa in Iowa for 15 years and lived in nine other states before Iowa. Florida was the flattest. For about half of my 15 years in Iowa I did a lot of work with elected officials. One of them quite seriously told me he felt Iowa is too hilly to be able to make use of cruise control in a car. I thought that was hilarious, odd, and not true as there are long flat stretches of highway in Iowa where cruise control is handy, but yes there are areas with quite a lot of challenging climbs. I discovered this while riding several RAGBRAIs (but I haven’t been able to ride one since 2014 due to work and family demands).

Needles

I do not see how you can get a 3-4000 ft ELEVATION change in a state with its highest point of less than 1700 ft. Don't get me wrong, you might CLIMB that much on a ride, though I'd have to see it to believe it, but I don't see how that much elevation is possible.

indyfabz

+2. When riding across the country unsupported we went into Iowa from the Browning, MN, area. Had some nasty grades in the state, and I don’t think we were in the worst part. Ended up in Davenport then crossed into IL. I was glad I had my 22t ring, especially when it was 100 degrees with no shade.

SalsaShark

If you're ever in northeastern iowa i will take you on a gravel century ride with some serious climbs......either bring your granny gears or your walking shoes!

cyccommute 

If you go down in a hole, you have to climb out of it. It adds up.

Needles

If you go down a hole, then climb back out, your elevation did not change. Your elevation refers to height above sea level. If you climb a total of 4000 feet, and descended a total of 4000 feet, your elevation did not change.

cyccommute 

While technically true, most people, apps, GPS devices, etc only count the climb back up. They may count the negative elevation change but they don't subtract that from the elevation "gain". Unless you did a ride where you never returned to the start point, every ride would have zero elevation change.

I did a ride recently from my house up to a place called Rocky Flats. I climb 2027 feet to the top of the ride and then came home. By your measure, I had no elevation change because I returned to my starting point. My GPS actually says that I went up 2027 feet and came down 1925 feet which means I ended up 100 feet over my house.

We count the uphill bits because we have to put energy into riding up a hill. The downhill bits are freebies for putting the energy into climbing that hill.

Nyah

I'd rather have this gearing setup than a compact double-chainring crank.

Miele Man

Yes it did and it changed TWICE. At one point you were at 0 and climber to 4000 so your elevation change was +4000. Then you went from +4000 back to 0 so your elevation again changed. The two do not cancel each other out.

Cheers