Living in Ohio with mostly just rollers, we can ride 53/39/28 with a 12/25, but going out of area with more significant hills requires a change to 11/34. I got tired of changing all of the time so we just run the 11/34 mostly now. Tuned correctly, this setup works well anywhere. Also at 140 total years, we don't have the power that we had 20 years ago, so having the lower gear options is nice, even when we don't really need them. I do ride a compact on my single and like it a lot.