Interesting... good info... thanks.

Actually, I just got home from work and was going through my goodies when I realized, I have a 12-25 cassette... because I had ordered the compact crank that was what I was going to go with since it would pair up nice with the 50/34 set up... I was going to get the 12-27 if I went with the ultegra 53/39... so now since the order was messed up, I've got a combo of the two... which means I guess my legs are just going to have to get stronger.

edit: I just did some calculations with Sheldon Brown's fancy gear ratio calculator and with what I'm riding with now (50/36, 12-26), riding in the 36 & 23 combination, the ratio is exactly the same as riding in a 39 & 25 combination on a standard... so tomorrow when I go out riding, I'll make sure not to use my 26T cog at all and see how I fair... the hills around me are no more than 3/4 mile to a mile at the most, but they're steep, equaling 8% grades and up which isn't easy for me. I'm sure the soloist team geometry will put power to the rear wheel on the road better than my X01 does too, so that will be interesting to test out as well and see how it helps in climbing.