"wle" wrote in message
om...

the author has twice now referred to shifting to "higher and higher gears"
when going up hills.

obviously he means what i would call "lower gears" - easier to
pedal.

is there any way that his usage can be the right?

The usage isn't correct, but I have heard this usage from people on bicycles
before.

You have to remember that, in motor vehicles, many people have never had to
change gears. They have had automatic transmissions all their lives. They
may also have avoided high school physics, or forgotten it.

I asked somebody about that once, and they replied that they thought the
hill-climbing gears were "higher" gears because you had to pedal at a higher
rate for the same amount of speed. Then they admitted they were always
unclear on the subject.