Originally Posted by
CFl.cyclist
I havea trek 1.1 right now that i have been riding with a compact and 12-25 8 speed cassette and the low gears are more then enough to get me up hills around here, so i want to stay away from such a large cassette. My friend stated that with compact crank i will likely not have high enough gears in some cases during the collegiate season here.
your friend doesn't know what's he talking about.
50/11 at 120rpm is 44 mph.
If you're racing in extremely hilly terrain, there may rarely be an occassion on a descent that you'd want more gear. However, even in those situations, it typically doesn't pay to pedal after you hit the low 40's. Instead pedal hard at the top of the descent, spin out, and then tuck. Th energy it takes to accelerate a bike from 44mph to 45 mph is not worth the effort.