Originally Posted by Zinger

I hear this complaint often about compacts, either that the rider is having to shift chainrings often or is having crosschaining issues. That's why they make different chainrings and why it it pays to do the gearchart calculations when you are contemplating upgrading drivetrains. Everything is a compromise though. As has been mentioned, you go wide at the top and bottom, you sometimes give up your optimum convenient progression of ratios in the middle.