Quote Originally Posted by TrekTheKaty View Post
Secondly, I'm hoping to graduate to a new bike this year and the real challenge was: could I ride the bigger hills without using my granny gear at the beginning of the season? (have a triple and hoping to switch to compact double).

There are three "bigger" hills--the first I made in my big chain ring (woo hoo), the second, I got cocky and tried to do it in the big chain ring and had to suddenly shift to the middle (almost a crash) but the THIRD--I got up in my big chain ring (granted there is a large downhill to give me momentum, but I've not made it up this one before). As I was yelling "woo hoo", my husband reminded me I could go down one more in the back and still be in my middle chain ring. I KNOW
A compact double will give you plenty of low gears, so it's not really like riding in the middle ring on a triple. You can even get a MTB cassette, and gear it really low. Keep using your granny for now! Spin, spin, spin!