Hi everyone, I just got a bike and need some advice. I have a Kestrel Evoke SL frame that is brand spanking new. I have some older style ultegra components on it as I just finished putting it together. I am going to get fitetd on this bike very soon and saw the thread about where to for that. So my question is about compact vs standard gearing. The bike has 53/39 and 11-23 and is a 9 speed. The cranks are 175mm and I am 5'9". The bike is a 56cm. I know most of them now are 10sp and lots of people seem to go with compact set. I am a MTB rider and tryo to use the middle ring as often as possible on climbs. Sometimes the super steep stuff forces me to drop into granny gear. If I decide or people tell me compact is the way to go, I would have to buy the whole group and that looks to be about $700 minimum. I know many of you have varying opinions about this subject. I am sure this has been posted many times but it would help me a lot to hear what you have to say. I might just suffer on the climbs with the current setup and see what happens. Thanks for everyone's thoughts.