Originally Posted by Zinger

Man I've never even stayed on a 52 x 13 for that long on my best younger days.

I'm going to compacts on both my bikes with 46/36 chainrings because I think it will keep me from cross-chaining using the gears I do most of my riding in. I will still use 7 speed freewheels on these two bikes rather than cassettes because I don't really want to get into any frame cold setting. I'm using Mike Sherman's gear calculator to determine my choices. (I like it a little better than Sheldon Browns.)

http://home.earthlink.net/~mike.sherman/shift.html

I'll probably do most of my distance rides on my Trek 500 so I'm going with a 14-28 freewheel on that one. I have gone to an older Shimano 600EX rear derailleur to handle the 28 tooth sprocket. My gear inches on this bike will range from 34.2 to only 87.4 and that's fine. This isn't my jammin' bike such as I actually ever do anymore. It will also be a moderate hilly riding bike.

My Trek 970 will have a 13-24 freewheel for gear inches of 39.9 to 94.2 which is pretty close to equal what I've been riding with for almost 2 active decades now (50-39 x 14-26). There have been times in the past when I've been dropped on the top gear but I just don't ride that fast much anymore anyway.

So how will I like my Trek 500 on the hills with the 36 x 28 ? I dunno yet. It's snowing now. We'll see. If I need to gear down even more I'll still have the spare 34 tooth ring if I want to give up my straighter chain-line optimum cruising gearing.