Originally Posted by
WISCONS1N
I am riding a Trek 2.3 with 50/34 and 11-25. I'm getting more comfortable at a higher cadence, (ave. 85) and feel like I am always close to cross chaining. Where I live there are a lot of smaller but sometimes steep rolling hills. When I get to a hill I have to shift into the smaller chain ring in front almost everytime, but when I get to the top I run out of gear fast and have to shift into the big ring again. Would it be better to be able to do most of my riding in the small chain ring in the front? What gearing change should I make if any?
If your cadence is high (90-100), you can probably mostly use the small ring.
Keep in mind that there is a lot of overlap between the gear sizes in the small and large ring.
If you are shifting to a higher gear, you typically have more time to perform the shift.
Thus, you should shift to the big ring before you run out of cogs.
Often, the cross-chaining gears are duplicated elsewhere (that means there isn't any strict need to cross chain).
Many people use your gearing set-up effectively. You should not need to change it.
You might want to run your set-up through a gear calculator.
http://sheldonbrown.com/gears/