Interesting article, if a bit involved. Sheldon Brown (of course) has a calculator for gearing: <a href="http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gears/" rel="nofollow">http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gears/</a>.<p>Due to the terrain here, I have a 50/34 front (compact cranks) and 11-25 cassette., and a preferred cadence between 90-100 depending on the grade or lack thereof.
It's nice to see people are still finding Ken's pages on the internet useful. He was tragically killed by a drunk driver back in 2003:<p><a href="http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/index.php/t-37758.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/index.php/t-37758.html</a>
I'm not sure if it's the book to which the author was referring (he doesn't give any references), but I've found <i>Bicycling Science</i> by David Gordon Wilson [MIT Press] to have a very informative treatment of human power generation. It also includes an entertaining introduction concerning the evolution of the modern bicycle.<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bicycling-Science-David-Gordon-Wilson/dp/0262731541/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276434642&sr=8-1" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Bicycling-Science-David-Gordon-Wilson/...</a>
I recently bought a single speed, and I think I enjoy it a bit more than my stolen 24-speed. I've done hills several miles long and standing up while pedalling slowly works great. It's like walking up steps two at a time, very slowly. I'd like to get a child trailer though, and I suspect that will push the limits of this experiment.
<i>I also have to accept another problem -- chain slap. With some of my lowest gears, the chain runs loose because the derailleur does not have the ability to wrap that many teeth.</i><p>I'm sorry, but that's just a recipe for unreliability. Surely mountain bike dérailleur can take up that much slack? (I only ride road bikes, so I don't know)<p>If not, I believe the new SRAM Apex groupset will be able to support it - it has an 11-32 cassette (<a href="http://www.sram.com/node/2121/brand/sram-road/src/cat" rel="nofollow">http://www.sram.com/node/2121/brand/sram-road/src/cat</a>)
<i>For instance, in one book (which was much better than most), the author said that a 27-inch gear was the equivalent of walking.</i><p>I'm not sure what 27-inches means. I have a 28 tooth back/42 front as my minimum. One day climbing Centiniel drive - to the Lawrence Hall of Science, I noticed an old guy walking was quite able to keep up with me.
I calculated the gear inches for all my combinations and it's printed on a tiny chart taped on my handlebar stem. It's too small to be useful in the middle of a ride though. I do have a larger-print version just showing the gear combinations in order of size, which is more useful mid-ride.
I tried touring a few times, and didn't really care for it. Instead of my 'Ferrari', it feels like pushing a garbage truck around, both up the hills and down.