My bike is a triple set up as half step plus granny. Rear freewheel is 14-17-20-24-28, front chainwheel 50-45-30. Don't try and shift sequentially through the gears. Instead, rough tune gear ratio with the rear derailler to match larger changes in terrain, then fine tune with the front. Very easy to shift between large and middle chainwheels since the difference between the two is relatively small, and I have 9 different gear ratios using the two large chainrings (avoiding large-large crosschaining). Perhaps not optimal for racing, but I think it works well for day touring.