Originally Posted by
livedarklions
I love the people who keep saying you should be able to feel what gear you're in. Have they never encountered a headwind?
Well, "What gear you're in" may mean simply how hard that gear is in the context of the gradient and the direction and speed of the wind. I rarely know without looking which cog I'm in, and sometimes I don't even know which chainring - sometimes I'm surprised to find myself trying to sprint in the small ring or climb in the big. Of course, this only happens on the bikes with 10 or 11 speeds in back.
I don't have a preferred gear for any particular situation. As I'm slowing down to a stop, I change gears so I'm in a gear that feels like what I'll need to start. Back when I was trying to get my kids into cycling, they had Grip Shift with numbers, and they'd ask me what number they should be in, which was impossible to answer, of course, since I wasn't riding their bike.