Originally Posted by
j mazz
i think i'll stay with the 11 - 26 as i like the 23 for the majority of the climb and fall back on the 26 to get me to the top. The 28 sounds nice but maybe too slow, i'll have to tough it out.
Lower gears are not slower unless you're spun out (in which case you should just upshift). The fastest gear will be the best gear. Toughing it out normally works fine if you have several thousand feet of climbing. But if you're one of those types who wants to climb 15K feet or more in one day, you can burn up your spinning muscles and will be in for a lot of hurt. 7-9% isn't that bad, but it's worse than it sounds if you're out all day.
The 11-26 will combine nicely with the compact. 11-28 is actually the same as the 11-26 except at the bottom of the range, so it's also a good option. I don't think 11-23 is a good idea with a compact for the simple reason that there are not enough overlapping gear ratios between the rings.