No use arguing over how someone likes to ride their bike. If a gear ratio that high works for you and you enjoy it then more power to you. That said, larger gear ratios don't necessarily mean that you go faster; and from my experience, faster is not always better.
In my case, I actually changed my gear ratio around quite a bit when I first started riding. I lived in Pittsburgh at the time (crazy hilly) and I wasn't a very strong rider so I went down from the stock 46/16 of my first bike. By the time I moved to Chicago (flat as a pancake), I was a much stronger rider so I initially thought my ratio was too low. However, winter came and the wind killed me on my commute (which was much further here than in pittsburgh). I ended up gearing down again just to get through the winter. I felt like an absolute slug at first, honestly. But by the time spring came I was making record time to work on like low 60s gear inches. I almost didn't even gear back up. Weirdly, it took until I tried that ratio, even after years of comfortably riding higher ratios, to find a cadence and rhythm that really made me feel one with the bike rather than just riding it (if that makes sense). Since then I've geared up again to the mid 70s but can still click into that magic rythm!
Long story short, changing your gearing always feels weird if you only ever ride one ratio. I think exploring smaller ratios can be super beneficial as a rider though, if only temporarily.
TLDR:
Originally Posted by
seau grateau
Learn to spin.