Thanks.
I’m still mulling over the options. I’ve not had a compact before. It’s for a recumbent, and my current bike has a triple 53-39-30 with 11-32 cassette. I spend a lot of time in the middle chainring, and if I’m cranking it I change to the big ring, usually in combination with the 3 or 4 smaller cogs on the back. I don’t usually use the granny ring, unless I see a steep hill coming up and I have time to change down for it. I find myself reluctant to move to the granny ring if I’m already on a steep climb, mainly because of a fear of the change going wrong. It’s quite difficult to balance a recumbent at slow speed, so I find that 39-32 is getting pretty slow, although 30-32 means I should be able to spin a bit faster and maintain the speed.
I’m considering X0 10speed compact double with twist shifters. That would keep it ‘modern’, but I’m not sure if I would miss the low gears, and the inner (34/36?) would probably be too low for most general riding. With the recumbent there’s not a problem with crossing chains, so I can use the full range of the cassette on any chainring.
The other alternative would keep it similar to what I already have with a triple, and maybe X0 9 speed twist shift for the cassette. However, I’d think about using a Rapidfire shifter for the front – it can be difficult to shift up with a twist shifter. The current bike has X9 derailleur and twist shifters. I’d not liked twist shifters before, but they work well on the recumbent in that they make it easy to change through a load of gears (I usually have to change to the 32 cassette whenever I approach a junction – it’s not easy to start off in a heavy gear!)
