Originally Posted by
Goriot
It is my first road bike and I love it, but lately I feel I can push more out of it. I'm taking it to its max on flats and asking for more.
I felt the same way a few years ago when I thought "Hey, my compact setup has nothing more to offer me and is holding me back."
Then I took a ride with a
real group, on
real climbs, and not only did I get my rear handed to me, I also came to the conclusion that compact cranks were still what I needed (I've traditionally lived in hilly areas and prefer hilly terrain to flat terrain).
If you live in extremely flat terrain, ride with extremely fast groups (avg 30+ mph), and have no intentions whatsoever of climbing any
real climbs, then you could probably make a standard crank setup work for you. That said, I can say I've never been in a situation where someone was able to just pedal away from me solely because I ran out of gearing with my compact setup. Is this the problem you're running into?