Quote Originally Posted by Catriona View Post
Are you currently riding a mountain bike or a road bike? You currently have pretty low gearing - Your front chain rings are 44, 32, 22, a normal road bike has 53 or 50, 39, 30. The smaller the # of teeth on the chain ring up front, the easier it is to get up hills. So the compact 34 & 50 tooth double on the giant is pretty close to road gearing, but you already have much smaller gearing than that up front. If you're on a mountain bike with fat tires, you may find that you get such an advantage from a thinner tire cyclocross bike that the bigger chain rings up front might be okay.

In the back, you have mountain bike gearing - 11-34. In the back, the more the number of teeth you have, the easier it is to get up a hill. So 34 is a fairly easy gear. The giant has 11-26 teeth, so the easiest gear is 26 tooth compared to the 34 you already have....

So the cyclocross bike doesn't have a lot of the gears that you currently have - your middle chain ring up front is already a smaller gear than the cyclocross bike. So... It kinda depends on how strong a rider you are on hills - if you don't need all the gears you have to get up a steep hill, then you might be okay on a compact double. YOu can change the rear cassette on the compact double to mountain bike gearing 11-34 (possibly going to require a new derailleur, and whether or not the cyclocross bike is 10 speed could complicate this).... But you would still have bigger chain rings in the front than on your current bike and you wouldn't have anything that approximated the 22 chain ring you currently have up front. You could look for a cyclocross bike with smaller front chain rings than the giant you quoted.

Indysteel and Eden are right - you are going to have to run the gear ratios through a calculator, which is why I originally only said you MAY have problems before knowing what gearing you're actually used to riding - but you're currently riding gears much smaller than that of a cyclocross bike.

I live in a hilly area - our mountains aren't quite tall, and I'm fine with a compact double. I also have a triple, but I prefer the simplicity of the compact double. I have an easier time getting into the right gear. But my compact double with a bigger cassette in the back, pretty much approximates the gears that I have on my triple.
Thanks for your info, I don't know much about gears but I appreciate your explanation about it. Yes I am riding a mountain bike with fat tires, do need all gears to get to my house.
I just consider a road bike or a cyclocross bike, am somehow attracted to a cyclocross bike but then found out about the difference in cranks.