When I lived in Glasgow back in the early 2000s, my regular ride from my home in the shadow of the Barrowland concert hall to the nearest decent supermarket on the other side of the city took me up a steep street squeezed between the grim facades of university buildings and a derelict hospital.
My hack-about-town had a triple chainring on the front. The gradient of this particular street required the granny ring, especially as I would
