Originally Posted by
Chrome Molly
To have many flat options while retaining big climb ability, what I would do with the 50/46/30 is try to find a cassette that allows decent half stepping across the larger two rings. Have a cassette something like 12-28 or 12-30 so you can preserve your nearly 1:1 climbing gearing on the little ring.
I find with a half step plus granny you have lots of options:
You can Half step when you need that perfect gear into a steady wind
Whole step when the terrain changes and you need a big change quickly
And, the bigger gaps on the rear cassette are not a nuisance when on the 30 ring spinning up a steep hill.
I ended up going with this option, only slightly tweaked to 48-44-28 up front and 11-30 in the rear. Since most of my miles these days are flat commuting (at least 100+ miles per week) , with only weekend forays into the hills, this gives me many small jumps in the cruising range, and I only need the small ring for those dastardly steep hills around here.
Now trying to decide on new tires.... 700x32 is my max size, I believe.....