Originally Posted by CyclingFool95

Yes. I wasn't very clear with my thoughts. The problem I have is that with a 34x11, which is already prone to being noisy due to the chain angle, I fairly often find myself with too high a cadence, and the switch to 50x16 awkward. I figure with a 36 up front I should be okay on the flats and not need to jump to the 52 too often. The terrain around here is rolling enough that if I try to just run the big ring, I end up on the cross end of the rear cluster on the little climbs, which is just as bad. Thinking more, I might be happiest with a 39/53 up front and a 29 rear for the big climbs.

My cassettes are varied - I have 5, 3 with 25 or 27, one 12-29, and, I think, a 12-32 that came with the Centaur group. Haven't even taken it out of the box.