I'm glad we all remember that thread!

I went from a triple and a standard double with a 11-25 in the back to a compact with a 11-25 (well, I still have a triple...) Truthfully, I hardly ever got into the granny gear on the triple and I still rarely do. My ability to spin improved greatly after getting the compact and maybe the geometry just works better for me - because I definitely climb hills better on my compact. But that bike also shifts much better in comparison than the triple. Periodically on the triple when shifting under load it decides to skip the middle chain ring or something else that really throws me off - I really have a hard time recovering from a mis-shift if I'm hill climbing.

I've found with the compact double,if I'm down shifting on the front chain ring, it usually works best to upshift a couple gears in the back simultaneously... that keeps my spin rate about the same... and then down shift on the back as needed.