Rival Compact Crankset

The road bike I bought used a few years ago came with a 53/39 Rival crankset and a 11-26T cassette. I never had the engine to get up some of the steeper grades (up to 16%) in the front range effectively with this setup. I was always looking to shift into a lower gear. The 53/39 Rival is 130 BCD, so you can't simply put smaller rings on them. I found a compact Rival on ebay for only $85, essentially new. The compact is 50/34T, so it changes the max low gear quite a bit. Previously my low gear ratio was 39/26, or 1.5 and now it's 1.3, so a 13% improvement. I could go up to 28T cassette to reduce the ratio by 7%. That's the maximum cog a short cage will accomodate. A medium cage supports a 32 cog, but that would be a bit ridiculous on a road bike. Now I can get up the steep grades much better and I don't lose too much on the top end.