Originally Posted by McBTC

It's pretty much what all of us did back in the day (of 5 speed cogs -- even with triples -- to get the most evenly spaced gears). The usual technique is to briefly shift into your higher (harder) gear first... so, you'd ring up from 34 to 50 and quickly drop two cogs (and vice versa going uphill: shift to the higher gears on the freewheel before dropping to the 34-ring).