FWIW - I live in a fairly hilly town and I have been using a 36 T sprocket on my bikes and love it....at low speeds and low throttle openings I get some jerking (up to about 11-14 MPH)....but when you get to 15+ MPH she runs real well with lots of pulling power too....As far as hill climbing, I can ride up Bellview ave (a steeeeeeep street that is long too) and still pull the hill faster than the stock 44T setup (in all fairness though I am running a tuned pipe / expansion chamber exhaust).....when the bike was using the stock exhaust it did bog up the same hill but made it none the less...I may try gearing with a 32T Rear sprocket soon.....I weigh about 160 and the bike is a Trek 7000 with a Dax 70.
Andrew

PS - 36 T is about 6300 RPM for 34.4 MPH on a 36 " wheel
(hard to read the digital tach and speedo while riding but I got the max figures from the respective units when I stopped the bike)