Bikes!

[dar512]

Originally Posted by glatt

it seems to me 5 or 6 gears would probably be enough for 99% of the situations you might find yourself in.

That's certainly been true in my case (even now when I have 21 gears ). But we live in more-is-better land.

On the other hand, I think the racers really do use all those gears. As I understand it, they try very hard to keep their cadence at one exact speed and vary the gears to the terrain.

I suspect that those of us who don't race would do fine with six. The kids and I have 21 gears on our hybrid bikes. My wife never has any trouble keeping up with us -- and she rides the same 3-speed Raleigh that she rode growing up.