I continually find it odd that modern hybrid bicycles come geared as they do as the low gear is usually sufficient for harder climbs (but not always) while the upper ranges are pretty much a waste as they are far too steep for anything except high speed descents.
As such, I end up doing a lot of aftermarket refits to bring a bicycles gearing in line with a person's real needs to allow for a more optimal experience.
A normal rider should find that a range of 40-100 gear inches is sufficient for all their riding needs unless they do a lot of extreme climbing, do loaded touring, ride intense off road, or race competitively.
The typical hybrid seems to use a 28/38/48 with a 12-32 cassette and older hybrid type bicycles and a number of mountain bikes used the same crank set up with a 14-x freewheel or cassette with a 28 being pretty common for the lowest gearing.
The 23-118 gear inches found on most modern hybrids offers a really decent low but there is a lot of wasted gearing over 100 gear inches... older set ups with 14-28 cassettes / freewheels had a 27-93 gear inch range with nice steps and with a 34 tooth rear you could drop down to 22 gear inches.
With wider ranges you also have to deal with bigger jumps between gears and a tighter spaced cassette is always preferable if one likes more evenly spaced transitions to maintain cadence. Those 11-12 tooth cogs also wear out quickly and with less chain engagement do cause some efficiency loss.
I really like the hybrid set up on my XC bike as I run a 24/34/44 mtb crank with a closer spaced 11-30 road cassette which gives a 20-103 gear inch range with nice even steps between the 8 rear cogs. Had an 11-34 and some of bigger jumps were a pain in that the gear change was more than I wanted and required me to do some double shifting.
Might even go with an 11-25 in the rear to tighten things up a little more.
Now I can live in the big ring most of the time and engaging as many teeth for a given gear is always more efficient and the closer steps allow for tighter shifting and smoother transitions.
The 44/15 combination is a nice 75 gear inches which is a comfortable cruising gear for flat ground (for me) and even if I am idling along at 90 rpm I will be doing 30 kmh with relative ease and I don't get passed very often.
Any thoughts ?