I have to admit I started skimming after awhile. Gear discussions tend to bring out the over analyst in most people. I was an avid reader of Bicyclist magazine long before I had the disposable income to become an avid bikie. Back in the days of 5 cog rear clusters and double cranksets you had interesting shift sequences: Half Step, Crossover, Half Step plus Granny.. ... do you ever wonder why you don't see in depth discussions of these shift patterns anymore? Another poster mentioned it: 8, 9, even 10 cog cassettes and triple cranksets have made gearing a non-issue. You guys would really get a jolt from a guy named Frank Berto who used to write a column in Bicycling Magazine in the 70's. I need to go back and read this thread in depth and wax nostalgic for the days when all this stuff was new and exciting.

The modern paradigm of shifting a triple is this: granny rings for hills; middle ring for level ground; big ring when descending. That's it. Way too simple for some, hence this thread. You are not meant to be on the big ring on level ground, which is why it felt weird. Obviously you can go lower on the cassette and rock the big ring for awhile just because you can, but that wasn't the intent. If the terrain challenges are few then the answer was never to have contemplated something like a 42/46!! That wouldn't have even made sense in the 5 cog cluster days. In a scenario like you describe in the o.p. the answer would have been a compact double crankset. Less weight and no wasted gears.

Trust me, the bike designer thought about the gearing quite a bit before they decided on the gears you now have. Getting the slicks made a performance improvement, mainly, as another poster said, because of the higher tire pressure of the newer tires. If you are running the newer tires at the same pressure as your old tires I find it hard to imagine that there is any tangible improvement in rolling resistance. I know that I can pick up a gear, sometimes two on the very same tires by pumping them back to their rated pressure. There is a lesson your bike is trying to teach you.

When I came of age as a cyclist, all bikes you could easily buy had 42/52 doubles up front and a 14-28 5sp in back. That was it. No matter the brand or price range. That was the gearing setup. No one in my neighborhood ever rode in anything except top gear. You were worse than a wuss if you ever downshifted from top gear. God how times have changed. I don't even know what the gears are on my latest commuter. I got it used from a co-op and the previous owner was one of those paranoid commuter types who stripped every kind of identifying nameplate or decal off the bike. I'm too lazy to count teeth and really, it doesn't matter. I blow the doors of cyclists half my age. For sure I'm spinning lower gears than they are mashing but I'm going faster... ... imagine that...

H