Originally Posted by Celeste Mike

Thanks for the feedback, everyone! I'll mess around with it but probably just swap out one of the chainrings for the time being.

I'm still confused by this though. I mean I get what's happening, I just thought that a 39/53 wouldn't at all be out of place on this kind of bike. So I'm surprised that a 39/54 is proving so problematic. How do modern compact and sub-compact doubles work, and with much wider cassettes than my little 7 speed? And aren't they like a 16 tooth jump versus the 15 I'm trying to pull off here? Are they only on longer chainstayed bikes? (Mine are definitely short, at 400mm.)