After a considerable amount of research and comparison using https://www.bikecalc.com/speed_at_cadence I’d determined that in order to simulate the easiest climbing gearing of a Specialized Aethos or Trek Emonda is to stay in the middle chainring and not go past the second easiest cog in the cassette (easiest is 34). That is exactly 36x30 and will be all I have on the climbs on the performance climbing bikes if and when I get one. Shimano Ultegra on both of them is 52/36T by 11-30 cassette.
This is important because I have been knocking out big climbs with max trainer difficulty set in Zwift using the granny and spinning away like there were no hills at all. I have to simulate the difficult of long hills as much as possible so I can build up the FTP and reduce the weight appropriately. Eventually, I might have to actually add seven kilos of weight to simulate the weight of my heavy Marrakesh touring bike.
I’m also going to swap out the 48 for a 52 in the front. That way I can at least know what the actually gearing of a pro climbing bike feels like even if the jumps in the cassette are wider.
By the way, I really don’t like that SRAM does 48x10 instead of a 52x11. That’s pushing the tight chain torque too much. In fact, the more I learn about SRAM the less I like it. Shimano has really got them beat on the road stuff (still). SRAM chains are objectively slower than Shimano according to independent testing.