Originally Posted by burnthesheep

On gearing.........

Purely from a TT point of view, the big ring:
If I currently only have a 50T and do both pan flat and rolling TT's, would you up the game to at least a 53 if you've spun out on minor downhills and with heavy wind at your back? It is a TT, and time counts. And cross chaining or using the small rear cogs is wasted watts. Let's assume it matters and I'm not the noob even though I am. My TT bike will be my aero road bike for a LONG time, no money. But, I can afford a chainring or spare crankset I swap over.

From the road point of view, the big ring:
If I did throw on a 53T, I feel I'll keep myself from cross chaining the big-big all the time because I won't be able to push a 53T up the hill like I can a 50T. I don't see that as a problem necessarily, but maybe an improvement. I know there's newer opinions on cross chaining vs using the big ring but I feel that going fully big-big a little excessive.

The rear cogs:
Any of you routinely swap the rear so you get a tighter spread? Like if I was doing a pan flat TT going with a 12-23 and having that really tight gearing versus keeping the "catch all" 11-28 on there.