Originally Posted by Porter20

I picked up my first road bike in October and it has a Compact Crank on it (50/34 in the front & 11/25 in the rear). Half my rides are of rolling hills & the other half are mountian climbs (as big as east coast mts. are considered). When I first picked up the bike, I spent a lot of time in the smaller gear (front) building strength, etc. Now it seems I spend most of my time in the Large ring, except for the serious climbing up a hill. I have found that I rarely am in the 34-25 gear unless I have absolutely spent myself racing someone up the hill. Also, going down the mountains, when I am in a 50-11, I can't spin fast enough for the gears to grab (around 41 mph). So there are 3 gears that I rarely use do to this.

Is there some formula out there that I can calculate what the idea gears that I need? I don't want to over step myself and change to 53-39 and have it be to difficult for me. Equally, if I am never using gears, then I feel like I am wasting. Any thoughts or advice would be great.

Yes. I tried to use the search function & I don't know if it's the computer I am on (I visiting family for the holidays) or the website, but the search function is not working for me today or yesterday.