>The last three years that stupid small gear has just been there, never even thought of touching it.<

I will say one thing in favor of my triple, after I bad-mouthed it a bit, above. It doesn't just offer one lower gear, it offers more and more closely spaced gears than a compact double.

I'm strong enough to ride up almost anything in a 39/27. Not fast, but almost anything. When I ride 20%+ grades, I don't mind shifting into 30/24 and a couple of months ago, on a 33% slope, I used my lowest gear.

My triple offers about 16 useable, closely-spaced gears, even removing a couple so as not to cross chain. A double, say 50/34, offers about 13 more widely spaced useable gears than my triple, and offers gears that are neither as high nor as low as my triple does.