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Cranks - Compact vs Regular


Faiyad

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hi

 

i am planning on changing my groupset and was looking for some advise.

 

one of the questions i had was co  should i choose a compact crank (50/34 or the regular 53/39?

 

i do struggle a bit with climbing but dont want to be completely reliant on lighter gears and loss of top end speed. as this is not something a person buys all the time, i want to try to get the best advise before making this purchase.

 

currently riding 53/39 cranks and 12/26 cassette. and yes i know i need to get fitter so lets leave that :)

 

any thoughts?
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Hi Skunk

It is an interesting one 53/39 with 12/26 should get you anywhere. If you go 50/34 then you would need to go smaller at the back which will put you back in the same place you were. 53/39 is the most common selection as far as I know.

Just my thoughts

 

 

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I ride a compact (50/34) with an 11-23.

 

If I loose touch with the bunch on the flats / downhill it's due to my own ability and not because of the gearing.

 

PRO

I find that I can hang with the group on some of the bumps by staying in my 50-blade - whereas if I was on a standard 523/39 - I would be forced to shift to the 39 - thereby loosing ground per rotation and also easing up on the crank tension as we go over the top in order to shoft back to the 53 ....

 

CON

I find the ramp from a 34 to a 50 is greater than that of a 39 to a 53, thus some frustration is not getting a smooth shift - If I'm too high at the back it won't shift at all, too low - and it overshoots the big chain ring - frustrating - no matter how much effort I put into setting the stops -  I have to compensate by making sure I select mid-cluster at the rear before changing up at the front.

 

At the end of the day - I prefer the compact.
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I ride a compact (50/34) with an 11-23.

 

If I loose touch with the bunch on the flats / downhill it's due to my own ability and not because of the gearing.

 

PRO

I find that I can hang with the group on some of the bumps by staying in my 50-blade - whereas if I was on a standard 523/39 - I would be forced to shift to the 39 - thereby loosing ground per rotation and also easing up on the crank tension as we go over the top in order to shoft back to the 53 ....

 

CON

I find the ramp from a 34 to a 50 is greater than that of a 39 to a 53' date=' thus some frustration is not getting a smooth shift - If I'm too high at the back it won't shift at all, too low - and it overshoots the big chain ring - frustrating - no matter how much effort I put into setting the stops -  I have to compensate by making sure I select mid-cluster at the rear before changing up at the front.

 

At the end of the day - I prefer the compact.
[/quote']

 

 

 

 

 

Same here... I prefer my compact ... Wink

 

 

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thanks guys this is really useful. i just dont want to spend so much money and end up buying the wrong stuff.  the only reason i asked this question is at the store i plan on buying this groupset, and at other stores, they have told me that a lot more people are moving towards the compact crank. not too sure if anyone can answer this, but with a compact crank and 11-23 at the back, what would that more or less be equal too with a regular crank? still around 12-26? hope this doesnt sound too confusing as if i explain this more, i think i will end up even more confused. again thanks for all the help!

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my reply from an earlier thread:

 

A standard crank has a BCD of 130mm and normally comes with 53/39

A compact crank has a BCD of 110mm and normally comes with 50/34

 

Crampy is the only weird one with a 135mm BCD on some of their older standard cranks.

 

Compact is more versatile as there are much more chainrings available 30/34/36/39/50/52/53 (FSA manufactures these)

 

I

have been using 52/36 without having to do anything the front or rear

derailleur and have never experienced the sluggish shifting that

someone mentioned here.

 

In fact I was running 52/34 for almost 6

months while waiting on my 36 blade without any issues.  The "bigger"

blades are not that easy to come by and normally needs to be ordered.

 

You can then change a compact crank to a standard crank by replacing the chainrings 50/34 with 53/39.

 

The smallest blade I have seen for a standard crank (130mm BCD) was a 38.

 

So dont worry about your FD it will cope

and it doesnt effect your RD at all so you are good to go compact!

 

 

 

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A 53/39 with an 11-26 is more than enough. That is what I use and have not difficulty with any climbs that I have ridden and can manage on the flats as well.

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you're not restricted to a 11-23 or 12-26; I have an 11-25 as a spare for those silly races that I get conned into

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What about a longer crank arm? Better leverage going uphill... It worked for me. I ride a 53/39 and 11-23 now. Cranks were 50/34 and 11-25. Went from 170 to 172.5

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