Originally Posted by
dagray
by bottom I mean the gears furthest away from the spokes.
Thanks for clarifying! I think that confirms that a 52/36 wouldn't make sense for your riding. You would spend even less time in those gears with bigger chainrings.
BTW, most of us use "bottom" to refer to low gears, i.e. the bigger cogs. And the "top" is where your "top end", highest gears would be, i.e. smaller cogs.