Originally Posted by
sam_cyclist
Back in the day, I used to putter along in the 42 (small)/17 or 42/19 a lot on slight uphills/flats.
There was really no use for the big (53) on anything except for downhills.
Now, with a smaller, and therefore more useful big (50) on compacts, along with a wider gear range on 10 speed cassettes, I am using both the big and small to an almost equal degree on flats, and small rolling hills.
I do find myself double shifting quite a bit, probably because both the big ring is more useful and also because STI makes a lot of shifting a lot easier.
So, I'm using the 50 a lot with the 5 lower gears, and the 34 a lot with the 5 higher gears. I find myself 'experimenting' a lot looking for the 'best' gear on flats.
Do you have a preferred or favorite gear on flats/slight uphills?
Do any of you consider a triple with a 39 middle ring a better solution for gearing than compact?
From what I've gathered through brief experience and some amount of reading and tinkering on
HTML5 Gear Calculator, joy or misery with a compact double is hugely dependant on the cassette you use. The wrong cassette will have you cross-chaining all the time, but with the right one, you can use that 50T for the bulk of your riding, only shifting to the 34T for steep and/or prolonged climbs. For example, I would be pretty miserable with a compact and 11-21T cassette, because my preferred flatland gear of 72" is near the extreme in both rings, and there are 2-3 gears on the top that would never get used by me. By comparison, a 12-25T or 13-26T would be much nicer.
That said, my road bikes have 130BCD doubles on them, and after installing a 42T inner ring on one of them (replacing a 39T), I can see the appeal. A 42T works really nicely for starting out, riding on flatlands, and getting some decent speed before shifting to the big ring. I can do my whole commute to work, which is very gradually uphill with a few dips and faster sections, without needing to shift the front, which is nice.
Finally, I'm a big fan of identifying the biggest gear I need for my riding, and then "tuning" my cassette and big ring combination to eliminate any gears I don't want. By switching to a 48T or 50T big ring on my bikes, I've gained that advantage of the compact where I can use the big ring a lot more.
You might also consider replacing the 34T with a 36T if you don't use the lowest gears on your bike. That would fix a little of the cross-chaining you get with that ring and improve shifting a little. Hope at least some of this helps.
