i have my roadie set up with 48/38 chainrings, with 9 cogs in the rear...pretty standard setup. i personally like the 48/38. i've been able to flatten the hills, and the 48/13 combo hardly sees any use. i've noticed that 48 for the largest ring is actually kinda good for maintaining pretty high speeds. large enough to cruise at speed on, but small enough to spin a good cadence to keep the legs from crashing, and even sometimes sprint with. i'm really happy with my setup, because it's all i really need.

i thought about the 1/9 thing, and every once in a while i give it serious consideration, but i don't think i'd be happy with it, mostly for chainline issues, but i also like having room on both ends of the spectrum.

i was actually thinking about setting up a 3 or 4 cog cluster and playing the the RD limit screws to make it work right...like, using a 9-speed hub, put spacers on it so the cogs would be somewhere in the middle...i was trying to work out which cogs i'd want on my last ride and came up with 14-16-19-23....but that's for berkeley, where there are hills. if i was gonna set it up for a place like boston, i'd do 14-15-16-17...combined with the 48/38, of course.