Originally Posted by Maelochs

The "Overlap" horse has been pounded to jelly .....

As for number of gears---have any of you been either carrying a load, climbing a hill, or fighting a fierce wind--or any two or three of those at once---and wished for a gear a tiny bit lower than the one you were using after having tired the next step down---not in order but in ratio---and found it too big by the tiniest of margins?

I remember a day coming out of Colorado into Kansas where we had nonstop hills and a 20-25 mph headwind ... I would have loved a CVT or a 3x33 on that day -- quarter-tooth margins?

Anyway ... at some point this approaches the Rydabent Theorem--"if I don't need it it doesn't need to exist." Indyfabz likes that set-up, and that is all the justification he needs, and the rest of us are just audience members talking during the performance.