Struggling with compact chainset

[Nigelnaturist]

As a matter of fact in the last 10 days Ive done the same climb on a heavy steel framed mtb with stupidly low gearing (17 gear inches for touring) , on the CX with a road triple and today on the CAAD 10 with the compact. The road bike and a combination of standing / mashing was far quicker than sat spinning and going nowhere fast on the heavier lumps.

To the OP, stick with it and use it as an incentive .

So you were something like 24x34, lowest I have had on the road bike is about 24" (26x28)

 

[doog]

I'd agree if op is young enough to develop. I just this week did my knee in using my HIGH geared road bike, but happily yesterday I made it through a 40 mile knee friendly route on my granny geared bike.

BTW I'm not sure how many of us here cant perceive(and maybe not interested in perceiving) 'inch gears'. I'm one of them.

(edited to the obvious HIGH)

Its worth contemplating gear inches, as you can mess around with your cassette (and small chain ring size on a triple) to make things as easy as you need. (whats the cassette on your road bike ?) However I only got into it as I like touring and lugging big weights around. The lower the inches the easier it is to spin and get up hills.

Here is sheldons gear calculator, easy to use, you might find it handy one day.

http://sheldonbrown.com/gears/