Originally Posted by
clausen
If you can not find the right gear it's not because of the size of the chainrings it's the cassette. I love my compact lets me use a tighter cassette 12-23 for the majority of my riding, the only downside to a compact is when going downhill.
Not so much. The same speeds that requires the 16 and 18 in combination with a compact crank can be accessed with the much more common 15 and 17 and a standard crank. So the chain rings do make a difference.