Quote Originally Posted by Crankin View Post
Emily, unless you are having trouble shifting to your granny gear, then what is your reason for not using it? Is it because of that out of date mind set mumbo jumbo about it being for grannies?
No, it's really not that. It's more just the logistics. Usually unless I realize ahead of time that I'm approaching a hill that is absolutely going to require it, I'm already in the easiest gear in back in my middle ring, and if I start thinking "Damn, I really wish I could shift one more time..." it's a pain because I have to upshift in the back a gear or two before I shift in the front to the granny ring. It's not always very successful to shift from the largest cog/middle ring right to the granny (easy to drop the chain). So, certain hills, I know right away are going to require the granny, I will shift well ahead of time, and I'm fine, but all too often it seems I wind up in the 42-25 combination and just wish I had one more gear since I am *so close* to being at the top of the hill. Usually in those cases, I get out of the saddle and power over (and my knees have been fine so far, knock wood!) but sometimes I'm getting tired and wish I could just stay seated.

It just seems so much easier to stay in the middle ring most of the time, and if I just had one more gear (or two, even better!) I could avoid the hassle of shifting to the granny (and then back, almost immediately afterwards, to the middle ring). I do use all my rings up front as needed, but I am not crazy about it. I'd prefer to stay in the middle and have a wide range of gears in the back...just keeping it simple.

Perhaps I am just a little lazy? But it's really more than that as with some of the places we ride in true mountains, I do need a lower gear in back even in the granny up front, and maybe I have taken my Trek so I have some hope of staying with DH. I have my Bike Friday with lower gearing, but it's a slower bike overall.

I do know that most newer bikes use the compact double, and in fact, I used to have a lovely, racy Aegis Swift with 650c wheels and a 34-50 compact double that I adored. I built that one up myself with Campy Chorus in 2004, and it was my splurge bike. The rear cog was a luscious 13-29, and I could handle anything with that combo. Of course, I was only 43 years old at the time. I ended up selling the bike eventually because I had my bad accident on it and just couldn't do fast road rides for a long, long time after that for physical and emotional reasons, and just the sight of the bike was rather upsetting to me. But that gear combination was lovely. With the 650c wheels, the gears were even a bit lower than they'd be on a 700c bike, like my current Trek Pilot.