Originally Posted by
HTupolev
It's possible to build a road bike with gearing that goes far lower than typical "road" options, even while staying mostly within "road" derailleur and shifter ecosystems. Like, it's fairly easy to coax the multi-ring GRX derailleurs into handling 11-42 cassettes (even though they're officially spec'd for 34T/36T), and there are off-the-peg road-q-factor cranksets with small rings in the 20s.
good to know. seems like that's basically what i'd need, something to keep me spinning in the 70rpm range at 4-5mph up a 12% gradient for 30 minutes or so. i don't have the ambition to do climbs bigger than that, and in fact most of the local rides are more like 8-10%. 28 up front, 36 in back, or 34 in the front and 42 in the back.