Originally Posted by DougG

But it's significant that, while it wasn't noticeably easier, it wasn't any worse, which does speak to an improvement in the equipment. Between the weight of the bike and the difference in what I was carrying on it, my bike was probably about 15lbs lighter. But mainly there was a big difference in gearing. On my old triple-crank bike, I had a 30/27 (or maybe 28) gear as my lowest ratio, whereas my current bike has a 30/32 low gear. These days, I would be walking my old bike over the top of a couple of hills that I encountered. So I'm at least slowing the decline...

As for no bike making me faster, after seeing what it did for my wife, I'm seriously looking at adding an e-bike to my stable next year.