So I've been looking at the Trek 7.7, Specialized Carbon Sirrus and now some road bikes as well. My current 7.5fx has 50/34 with 9 speed 11-34 which I can basically use to get up anything here in the San Jose, CA area. however, on the really big steep climbs (for those local, Hicks for example), this is a real real struggle. I can do it but that lowest gear isn't so low as to allow you to just spin up and the legs/knees really suffer.

so now I'm in the market for a new bike and it just gets worse! seems most setups are a 50/34 with 10 speed 12-30. so you lose even a bit more ratio (if that is correct terminology). The LBS tells me this is the normal setup for a road bike these days, even in this hilly area with big climbs. I'm a big guy 6'3 190+ so I understand I'm already at at a disadvantage but I see plenty of guys out here stuggling much more then me on climbs. How can this be a good setup for an all around bike that will be used for a significant amount of climbing? My mtn bike has plenty of granny gears, why don't the road bikes come with a better setup on the low end?

I ended up not purchasing a new bike during a sale this weekend just for this reason as figured my 7.5 was currently setup better then anything else I was looking at! Am I doomed to suffer on climbs if I upgrade to a nice carbon bike? LBS talks about swapping cassettes and such but advise against generally...

Thanks for any insight/advice.