Originally Posted by moppeddler

I find this thread fascinating because I'm new to biking, and don't really know what any of it means. I looked up the specs on my bike (Trek 1.5) and it has a 12-30 Shimano Tiagra cassette. Does this mean there are 12 teeth on the lowest gear and 30 on the highest? Forgive my ignorance. My front sprocket (probably the wrong word) is a FSA Vero 50-34 compact. What does compact mean. Is this good or bad? Do these gears sound OK for doing hills? DO lower or higher numbers mean easire gears for climbing?

If someone could give me an overview of what all this means and what I should look for, it would be appreciated. Right now, I'm riding 1-2x/wk, usually 10-20 miles. So far avoiding big hills. Thanks in advance for any help.