Originally Posted by no67el

But "back in the day" these bikes were ridden too, no? How the heck did people get up the hills? I'm looking at a 50's era racing bike that was fitted with a single front chainring with 46 teeth, and 4 rear cogs with something like 14-17-19-22. Compare this to the supposedly macho racers of the 70's with a 53/39 and a 12/23! Let alone today's bikes which roll of the sales floors with a 50/34 crank and an 11-34 cassette....

Did people just like suffering more? Were people just strong enough to crank 40 rpm up 12 percent grades?

I'm actually puzzled by this. How did cycling survive as a sport with such brutal gearing? Figured you folks might know...