Dear friends,

Thanks for all those useful insights; I just hope other readers will be able to pick up the useful part and not get carried off by the banter.

Yes, perhaps the first thing I learnt from my internet research in Jan when I began biking with my toy bike was that the current wisdom is to spin, not push. 75-90 for people like us, while the pros can even spin upto 120 as in Salsa's Avatar picture . I can tell from personal experience that pushing larger gears may help me in short bursts, but strains my knees and lower back and wears me down rapidly...just as Sylvain and others have summarised.

My current bike is simply great; light and peppy, and proved to be rugged as well: I didn't have an iota of mechanical problems in the close to 500 km of riding. Whether to invest more money in buying a new gear set, or buying a new bike, was my dilemma, but that is a personal choice I have to make, and will do it sooner than later.

Salsa, I am sincerely very appreciative of your well-meaning suggestions; I hope the criticisms don't discourage you from posting more. After all, they do seem to attract a lot of attention and generate more debate/insights and in the end that is what matters.