Quick Question
 

I have a quick question. Is this gearing choice closer to road or MTB?

Its a triple crankset 52/42/30 and a 8spd cassette 11-30.

Thanks

road

Awesome, thank you

Actually, it's a bit of each. Road crankset, MTB cassette. A road cassette for that would be a 12-28.

Hmm. In saying that, would I be able to change out the cassette to a road cassette without changing the rear derailleur?

Yes. At most, you might need to shorten the chain a link or two. My guess is that the bike setup is not stock and it already has a road derailleur and running it with an mtb cassette is sort of iffy.

so?

if you use Sheldon Browns gear analysis site.... figure out what _you_ want to do with the bike... does it matter whether it's gearing is road or mtb? the gear spread on that combination is pretty wide. you could do either road or mtb with it and still have gears to spare I would think.

IANAE on either I just commute.

Only to the extent that the RD can take up the chain slack when running in the granny ring, or that the RD can physically clear the big cog.

If the bike has an MTB RD, no problem at all running MTB cassettes--or road cassettes for that matter. Shimano 8-speed (and most 9-speed) is mix-and-match (within the speeds) so it's no problem running STI shifters with MTB RDs. Touring riders do it all the time.

If it has a road RD, when running in the granny ring it may not be able to keep the chain tight beyond about the middle of the cassette (say, the 15-tooth cog) because of the extra chain length required to fit around the big cog. At the other end, if it physically doesn't clear the big cog, the B screw may provide adequate adjustment.