I seem to have all the different cranks over the past year!! I rode a 52/42/30 triple the last 4 years. It is a very good setup and allows you to have one bike that does it all.

This year I bought a different bike with a 53/39 double and I'm finding it's excellent for rolling terrain and a very good training setup. With the 53/39, it forces me to use a little harder gear than I'd like which helps to strengthen my legs and better prepare them for climbing rides. The 39 being slightly easier than the 42 helps me on some routes around my house that have little steeper and longer hills.

I changed the triple on my original bike to a 50/34 compact several months ago. With having ridden the Compact a good bit this year, if I were to just have one setup it would be the 50/34. It saves some weight. Then there's the better utilization of the gears. While it has fewer total gears than a triple, you have a pretty large duplication of gears on a triple so the Compact allows you to have just what you need. Better utilization of the gears you have is probably what I'm driving at. You can still get the same range of gears on a Compact as a triple by selecting a cassette and derailleur that provides that range. I also happen to think a Compact Crank looks better than a triple. Just a cleaner, simpler look.......

The 50 is a perfect gear for general purpose use. Like some others, I stay in the 50 most of the time on rolling terrain. There are times when I might "spin out" on a 50/12 but usually it's with a large group and they just wind up sucking me along anyway......If I'm out on my own a 50/12 is plenty of gear on the high end for me.

The Shimano R700 seems to have solved some of the shifting issues the first Compact Cranks had as it performs very well. While there's a need to "double shift" with the Compact, it's become second nature to me but I was actually already doing that most of the time with the triple when shifting gears on the chainring.

Just my opinion but if I had a bike with a triple, I couldn't justify the expense of going to a Compact (even though I did) but I wouldn't consider anything else if I were purchasing a new road bike (except a Time Trial bike).