what chainring to use?

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im curious as to which gear i should be in when i ride on a particular path i frequent. i usually ride it on the big chainring with the third smallest cog. but im thinking i might get a little more speed using the middle chainring and the second smallest cog? the road has a long incline. i cant get over 16 mph on it. any ideas on chainring use?


here is what the bike has...

ChainShimano IG-31FreewheelShimano CS-HG50-8 (12-25)

Chainrings30/42/52

Feed you bike gears into this: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gears/ set to mph at your normal cadence and you can see which gears give what speed. :D