Originally Posted by
mschwett
more like 8-10 sustained, typical california coastal range roads. i live on a 10% slope in SF. but a little headroom is good.
Agreed, the nice thing about a lower gear than you (or others) think you need is that if you get tired and need to ease off the power for a bit, you don't have to slow your cadence down. Not every climb is one that you'd want to hold steady power up, even with a steady grade. You might want to take a drink or eat in the middle, and keeping tempo could be tricky with a lower cadence.