Originally Posted by
genejockey
Between the hills around here and my weight, I use every dang gear I can lay my hands on. In this case, the Battaglin already has a 12-27, but since it's my best descending bike, I want to take it up climbs without as much suffering.
I rented a bike in SF that had 12-34 and 50/34, having the very low gear came in handy on the SF hills. We don't have anything like that here.