I recently got a new bike (Trek Madone 5.2 WSD). She's lovely, but KILLING me on hills. I have a bad hip due to damage from something similar to rheumatoid arthritis. My hill strategy in the past was to spin up the hills. I can't now, and it's hurting like heck AND I'm slower. Not cool! Before I got the Madone, I was able to avg 18+ on hilly rides, now I'm lucky to avg 16.

The old bike is a Specialized Tricross triple with FSA 53/39/30 crankset and Deore(?) 11-34 cassette (MTB cassette). I was spinning up large hills in 'super granny' as I call it

The Madone has an Ultegra compact crankset 50/34 and 12-27 cassette (recently switched to that from 11-25 which has helped a good bit, but not enough).

I've considered switching out the crankset for a Triple, but it only gets me to a gain ratio of 2.2 (vs. 2.5 on the current setup ) which seems pretty far from the 1.7 gain ratio I had with 'super granny' on the triple. Thoughts? Would the extra gear make that much of a difference? What costs would be associated with that other than the crankset?

Current strategy: Build up muscle strength around the hips (suggestions on that are welcome). Don't ride with my usual riding partners so I don't feel like a loser when they drop me on the hills. Ride the Tricross on hilly rides once 'cross season is over.

Any other suggestions? I'm feeling really beat down right now. I at least realize there's a reason I've been so much slower now, but it's still demoralizing.