Originally Posted by
TheDudeIsHere
You are so unaware. A rider's legs are going to develop far more than when he is starting and new. He has great gears now and with a little natural strength building , he will be fine.
Without knowing what terrain the OP intends on riding, and their level of talent and intended amount of dedication to the sport, you don't know if the gears that are on their bicycle right now are adequate for what they want to ride.
I'm in my 20s, have been cycling for 5 years, and won a cat4 race once while dabbling at the regional velodrome. I'm far from elite, but definitely stronger than most cyclists.
My ride yesterday included one climb that averaged 11% for a mile-long stretch. My bicycle's lowest gear was 24-32 to produce 19 gear inches, a good step lower than what the OP has. I used that bottom-end ratio quite a bit.
As far as being stupid, I am not so sure. Who is going to go out and push higher gears than what they can and injure themselves? Have you never heard of building up to the level? What idiot is going to go ride a big hill without having built up to it? I guess I am much smarter than you because if I can't do a hill, I would find a lesser one, conquer it, then gradually advance. Only and idiot would do that and that seems exactly what you are doing.
You're basically saying that cyclists should let minor configuration choices with a bicycle dictate what routes they ride. You're also picking a completely arbitrary bar for what everyone should accept as a suitably-low bottom gear. In other words, you think that if someone is at a level of fitness significantly lower than myself, the ride I did yesterday ought to be off-limits to them. Even though it's fairly easy to solve that problem by modifying the bicycle. That's
horrible, especially as it's an absolutely amazing ride with spectacular views.
"Building up to the level" means that you shouldn't try big efforts outside of your ability. A hill is not an effort, it is a hill. Aside from technicality, a big hill is not - and has little reason to be - inherently difficult to ascend.