Originally Posted by cyccommute

Yes, just comparing the ratio. The convention is to put the front chainring first and the rear cog on the cassette second. If you are going to calculate gear ratios, gear inches, gain ratios, etc., you divide the number of teeth on the crank by the number of teeth on the cassette and then multiply by whatever factor you need to multiply by.

The chainwheels on most cranks can be changed rather easily. The FSA Alpha does come with a 48/36/36 but the size of the inner bolt circle diameter or "BCD" is 64mm which means that you can put as small as a 20 tooth ring on the crankset. 20 tooth rings are rare but not impossible to find. 22 tooth rings are easier to get but would give you a little higher low gear.



It's simple enough for you to do it. You need a 5mm Allen wrench and you can do it before you put the crank on. If you get the external bearing crank, it's easy to remove the crank to change the rings.