Basic drivetrain queries for the roadies...

Speaking from personal experience, I had a triple on my Tricross and never used the small front ring on the road, now have a compact 50/34 with a 12-25 rear and find very little use for the lower gears. As you are coming from a fixed/ single gear background you should be used to standing up and hefting up any hills so I reckon a standard double on the front and if you are worried maybe a wide spread on the rear- 12-35 or something?

also my mate has campag levers but shimano group set and seems to have no probs.

I think the difference in spaces between splines on Shimano and Campag cassettes are only 0.2mm, but when you look at the whole cassette it's adds up to a bit of a difference on the extremes of the cassette. Dunno about you but I wouldn't want to be skipping and bashing my plums on my TT while climbing.

You can get some sort of thing you put inline on your gear cable so you can mix and match shimano and campag. Don't know why you would want to though unless your using left over parts.

Found it shiftmate

http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/article-Shiftmate-Guide-bg_shiftmate.htm