My road bike came with a compact double crank, 50/34 chain rings, and a 10-speed 11/28 cassette. All SRAM Rival. I rarely use the large chain ring because it tends to hurt my knee -- I have a bit of a patella-tracking issue. I'm also prone to asthma problems on steep hills, so I typically just shift way down to a low gear and slow my cadence as needed to protect my lungs.

The cassette is pretty worn, so I'm looking into replacing the it with an 11/32 to make steep hills a bit easier. This will necessitate a new rear derailleur. While I'm changing gears, I'm also investigating a smaller large chainring. The people at the LBS suggested I get a 44.

However I'm looking now at SRAM's website and I'm a little confused.

https://www.sram.com/sram/road/produ...l-oct-crankset

Looking at the crankset for the Rival 10-speed group, these are the available ratios:

53/39, 52/38, 52/36, 50/36, 50/34, 46/38

First, there's no 44, and the only choice below 50 is a 46. Okay, fine. But if I want a 46, do I have to go up to 38 for the small ring? Because that works against the goal of getting the cassette with the 32 cog in order to make hills easier .

Is it just that SRAM chooses these particular chainring combinations, or does the ratio between the rings matter? Can I just swap the 50 for a 46 and keep the 34?

I'd really like to limit the components that need to be replaced in order to change to gears that work better for me.

Thanks!!