I went in for my bike fitting today. I brought up the subject of gearing, and after 10 minutes of persistence, it finally got through the guy's head that maybe I really did have reason for concern. We looked at my old bike and counted the cogs on the biggest sprocket: "Do you really use that?" the bike guy asked incredulously. DOH!

Since the Shimano compact double doesn't have an option that replicates my old triple's 30 front/ 28 back, I'm switching to a SRAM Rival system with a 34 front/32 back. I'm a little leery of the SRAM shifting action, but I suppose I'll get use to it -- old dogs can learn new tricks. And I think I'll enjoy the gearing very much.