Originally Posted by zukahn1

One thing is you could change your cassette to a 12-28/30 which would give you little more gearing range without changing a lot on your bike. Another would be to change your small inner granny gear to a 32 or 34 which would be pretty easy. The modern 50/34 you mention is usually run with 10-26/28 9 or 10speed cassette which gives about the same gear range as you currently have.