Faiyad Posted April 6, 2010 Share 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? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulvs Posted April 6, 2010 Share are you male or female? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lone ranger Posted April 6, 2010 Share 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulvs Posted April 6, 2010 Share so is it madness to ride 50/34 and 11/23? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyclenut Posted April 6, 2010 Share 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. PROI 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 .... CONI 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulvs Posted April 6, 2010 Share 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. PROI 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 .... CONI 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 ... . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faiyad Posted April 6, 2010 Share 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! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tankman Posted April 6, 2010 Share my reply from an earlier thread: A standard crank has a BCD of 130mm and normally comes with 53/39A 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) Ihave been using 52/36 without having to do anything the front or rearderailleur and have never experienced the sluggish shifting thatsomeone mentioned here. In fact I was running 52/34 for almost 6months 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 copeand it doesnt effect your RD at all so you are good to go compact! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyr249 Posted April 6, 2010 Share 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyclenut Posted April 6, 2010 Share 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ha Ha Kieran Posted April 6, 2010 Share 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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