Originally Posted by
Helderberg
Thank you all for your honest and thoughtful answers. My 7 is only about three months old so the parts are hardly worn. In this area the hills are impossible to escape unless I take the bike elsewhere to ride so I don't get in a lot of miles. The information I have taken away from the posts is what I thought to myself but did not want to admit. In my case, at age 70, a better bike is just a bike I will never extract the benefit of with my riding. I am not exactly suffering with my 7 so I think I will save the money and just go ride the darn thing. I find it a great escape and extremely relaxing to just be on the road, by myself, moving forward.
Thanks again to all of you for your honesty and for not just writing my obvious question off. It is much appreciated.
Frank.
It's too soon to sell that bike. Keep it!
Where I live, I cannot ride anywhere without hills. It takes time to build up hill climbing legs and a cardiovascular fitness to go along with them. I know how it can be. If I go from my home east 9 miles I go from 5000 feet to 9600 feet of elevation. If I go west four miles I drop 800-900 feet. If I go north or south I'm immediately in the midst of rolling hills. My 20 mile nightly ride has about 1400 feet of elevation gain. These aren't huge numbers (well, except when I go east), but they're enough that there's no such thing as an easy ride close to home. But with practice it gets better.
If your Quick 7 is not enabling you to enjoy riding near where you live consider swapping out the rear cassette to one that provides a larger gear range. The Quick-7 comes with a Shimano CS-HG31 8-speed cassette in an 11-32 range. For under $20 you could buy the 11-34 version of that rear cassette, and pay your local bike shop a few bucks to install it. You may need a longer chain to accommodate the extra two teeth. The gear ratio of your current 28/32 is 0.88 (28 tooth small chainring in front, 32 tooth rear cog). The gear ratio of 28/34 is 0.82. There is a difference there -- not a huge difference, but enough that you'll feel some relief on the steeper hills. For under $50 total you could possibly expand your local riding range and give yourself enough relief that you'll be able to ride close to home on a more frequent basis, which is the beginning of getting better at hills.