Originally Posted by
shelbyfv
There's a good chance that if you need a 34, you may not miss the 52 vs a 50. There will always be weird situations and folks who imagine they understand more than the "herd" but the normal combos work for most.
True in many situations.
Personally, I was a late adopter of the 34,
and mounted it specifically for one ride up in Portland that kicked my rear with the 39. Otherwise I would be fine for all my other riding with "Standard". But, chose not to swap back and forth between rides.
Of course, the overall gearing is a combination of what one has up front and behind, both high and low.
The move from 13/14T freewheels to 11T cassettes has also reduced the reliance on large front sprockets.
However, the other thing that has happened is a general move to both higher gears in the rear (11T), and lower gears in the rear (25T/28T/30T/34T/etc).
Say a freewheel, 14:21 gives one less than a 2:1 overall ratio.
On the other hand, a cassete, 11:33 gives a 3:1 overall ratio.
Say for chain rings 54/34 gives one about a 1.5:1 ratio. I.E. One can shift the 11/33 cassette, and have a few sprockets to spare on each end (to avoid cross-chaining), and still have gear overlap.
Personally I don't see any benefit of discarding the 50/52/54 sprockets to get something like a 46 or 48 and much more gear overlap.
Well, that is unless the 46 is the small ring.
