Quote Originally Posted by ny biker View Post
Well if you can learn some lessons then even bad experiences can end up good in the end!

I was thinking about the "use the big ring when riding downhill" advice. In most of the places I ride, the downhills are followed by short bridges over small creeks which in turn are followed by big uphills. So if I shifted to the big ring going downhill I would have even more downshifting to do at the bottom than is already necessary. But then between the finicky right knee and the asthma, I probably ride up most hills in easier gears than many of my riding buddies.
I actually do find that this helps me - it just means I'm going back and forth between the big and small chainring. If I hammer down the hill (and I can't do that in the little ring), I have an easier time getting up the next hill. I'm going faster and can use that momentum up the next hill, and if I'm not coasting, my pedal is at a nice rhythm going up the hill.

I did experiment a little more with the small ring today - I definitely need the big ring on downhills, but I did use the small ring a little more on flats today - and I did have an easier time going into some of the hills. I'm guessing it's still a matter of finding the happy spot? There were times in the small ring where I just felt like my feet were out of control, and not really being productive on the gears - and switching to a harder gear in back didn't seem to make much difference.