Lower Gear Inches or HTFU?

The difference in gearing is a sign of the times on - older mechs just couldn’t cope with a wide gear range . If you look at racing footage from those days riders would be stamping on the pedals with a slow cadence when climbing. Nowadays we prefer to twiddle, and to protect our ageing knees!

I hear what you say about modern vs vintage gearing, spoilt buggers that we are.

I think it was we who were spoilt!

We had relatively quiet roads ( much of our ride to Pembrokeshire was on the A40), a good club structure and an excellent youth hostel system. Also we didn't suffer from modern anxieties about health and safety. If a couple of 14 year olds set off for Wales today as we did, it's quite likely they would be taken into care on the grounds of their parents' negligence.

We didn't think our bikes were inadequate - we hadn't heard of 11-34 cassettes, so we didn't miss them.

Too true. Roads are too busy (not at the moment though), too many non outdoor activity distractions, and as you say kids aren't allowed to go off on there own anymore (to a certain degree). I was a teenager in the 80s, as long as I was back before dark, and had 10p in my pocket to phone home if there was a problem, I could pretty much be out all day on my bike.

Indeed. As a 15 year old in the 70s, I went cycle touring all over southern England. with my friend also 15. We stayed in youth hostels and no one thought there was anything odd about it.