Is this bike a 24 speed?

[Filliam H. Muffman]

freeradical wrote: I can appreciate the wider range of gears, but I don't see how the average rider would see a difference between say gear 17 or 18.

Do you mean the average rider that rides a bike 2 miles once a week, or the average rider that rides 12 miles a day to and from work when it isn't raining, or the average rider that puts in 30 miles a day and rides in a century 8 times a year?

One year I was doing about 80 miles a week in a loop from my apartment, to Discovery Park, to Sac State, and back home. I turned my 10-speed into a 12-speed. I usually used one of two gears depending on the headwind. With 24 gears, I would be able to choose between 3 gears.