Wowzers, a lot of hot air being blown around about doubles and compacts. A double with a low enough cassette may give you more high end options but most of us aren't into spinning 53-11 at 110rpm but we do have to face the 3.5 mile climb at 6% grade. 39-23 ain't gonna get us to the top.

So, if you're 40 yrs. old and have never ridden a road bike before, a 50-34 crankset with 12-25 looks pretty darn good.

On my best days I've gotten the 50-12 up to 90 rpm while flying down the mountain but so what? Once on the flat I'm downshifting to around 50-15,16 to keep the cadence up. Maybe this year I'll be staying in the 50-12 longer but when it comes time to climb Keel mt. at 10.8%avg. for 1.4 miles I'll be glad I have at least the 34-25 and thinking that 12-27 cassette isn't a bad idea when it comes time to replace the cassette.

Is this the road cycling forum or the Cat 1 wanna be forum? For people like Patentcad and terry morse and Machka, my hat is off to you(and others that I'm sure I missed). But for you other dufuses like Cypress and Sincity, just who the heck do you think you are? Go hang out in a racing forum(or a steroids forum) or try to have a sense of decency and decorum. I know this is the internet and for some people that means it's okay to be an @ss and to act as assinine as possible(does that really get you off or what?) but for the rest of us, we like to learn from other peoples' experiences.