Xplora wrote:OP. Reflecting on your recent posts, and after googling your bike -
Do not change your crankset. You have a 50/34 which is perfectly adequate and is the de facto standard for road bikes now because unless you race, most dudes lack to power or passion to drive a standard 53/39 crank. It's not a huge difference anyways. Half a gear in the harder gears on the cassette. But very expensive to change
Your cassette is easy IMO. Get yourself a 12-23. This gets you a TON of gears in the 25-35kmh speed at 80-100rpm cadence. If you run out of gears charging down a hill, consider it good practice to spin up to 150rpm.
I personally had a BIG jump in my cycling when I went from 12-27 to 12-23 (and lately 11-23). It forces you to toughen up on some of the shorter climbs (because you can climb a lot of 100-200m pinch climbs in the big ring) and you are able to pick a good gear when you're spinning away with your mates on the flat. You'll appreciate the 16 and 18 cogs a lot, and those are the ones you miss first as the cassette gets wider. I found I was wimping out to the 24 and 27 a lot, instead of standing up and pushing through it with the 21 or 23. Also, the gaps between the 21-24-28 aren't very friendly for convincing you to get pushing hard. You have to "reset" your cadence and it's hard to get the rhythm flowing again when you're already struggling. You will struggle, for sure. But you'll get stronger, and you'll stop needing those bottom gears as much. Then you'll be FASTER.
Make no mistake - the 28 cog with a compact is only necessary for seriously crazy climbs or bailing you out. I was riding a 28 last weekend on the verge of cramping badly; the easy gear gave me some breathing space to get the water in and survive the climb. But you shouldn't be that silly. You are unlikely to be trying climbs after pushing 80kms quite hard for a while. It took me a couple years to get this far. This advice might not be conventional wisdom, but you do need to force yourself to improve and a 12-23 is a great way to do that.
12-23 climbing as a beginner or even a long time novice latic acid up big time and you will be searching for another gear that is not there we have all done it