Originally Posted by
Bulette
A 1-to-1 ratio is a low gear for lots of terrain, but there's no shame in wanting even lower gears.
Absolutely agree! The lowest ratio on my road bike happens to be 1:1, but no way is it optimum for really steep sustained road climbs. Once the gradient goes north of 15%, my cadence is often dragged down into the 50s and a lower gear would therefore be more efficient. We have a lot of 20%+ climbs locally and guys without compact gearing struggle badly on those climbs unless they are elite level. 1:1 with decent fitness and W/kg gets you up them without walking, but you could go a LOT lower without any risk of spinning out. Road bike gearing is always a compromise between range and gear spacing, but there is nothing worse than running out of gears during sustained climbing.