raymond82

Since I'm not an extremely competitive biker, I would like to have something like a 42/30 setup on my road bike. The only options I know to get that (TA specialites and Sugino Compact) are way out of my league financially.

So my new idea now is to use a road triple crankset that I once bought and remove the outer ring. I was thinking of replacing it with a bash guard but now I'm thinking it would be nicer if I could just buy a small part that would cover the place where the outer ring attaches. I can even imagine something very smooth that would make it look as if the crank arms just continue onto the middle chainring. Does such a thing exist?

raymond82

What I meant was chainring bolt cover and, I just found what I'm looking for, it's something like this:

https://www.cyclingnews.com/features/...dapters/219700

But these are not sold separately...

jolly_ross

I once built an IGH winter mountain bike on v low budget - part of the build was converting a triple front ring to a single. I used the middle ring - the inner I just removed, but the outer ring - I hacksawed its mounting arms off and filed the cuts round, so I made the parts you are talking about by hand.

raymond82

Thanks! That's actually something I was considering, I'm just now sure yet if I'm willing to sacrifice the outer chaniring, it's a brand new one. But now I'm thinking, I think I also have an old one laying around somewhere that I could use.

bud16415

I did something similar, but used a mountain crank and took off the granny ring. Giving me a 42 32 crank. When doing that it gave me straighter chain lines off the 32 to use with all the cassette and when on the 42 straight chain lines on the smallest cogs.

raymond82

That doesn't give you problems when using the 32 with the largest cogs?

It's a good idea, I'll have a look into chainlines of MTB double cranks. The thing is that here in Holland on the flat I don't use my 42 outer ring (I have it on a road compact now) until I go faster than ~31 km/h, until that I use the 34 in front. Ideally I would have a 34 in front on a BCD smaller than 110, so that when I'm in Holland I can use the 34 and then when I'm in the mountains I can replace the 34 with a 30 or even smaller.

bud16415

That was why I used the mountain crank as it put the 32 in the middle position and I could use it on all of the cogs of the cassette. The only time I use the larger 42 ring is when I want to use the smallest cogs and that again made for a better chain line. Like you I had a brand new mountain crank hanging on the shop wall so I thought why not try it to get some better hill climbing gears the bike had a 52,42 double on it and was much too high for me and if I spin out I’m ok with coasting down hills. So if you adapt a triple to a double I would put the ring you use most in the center position.

I do have two rear wheels for that bike and one has a wider range cassette that gives me a lower gear or two and if I’m heading into the mountains I used to switch the wheel, but now that I have a touring bike with a triple and a huge range cassette I take that bike. I love my triple. Although there is a lot to be said for a low geared road bike.

bud16415

I found a pic of the triple I’m using as a double. It’s not pretty but it works well giving me some low gears. I did lower the FD after I saw it worked ok.

raymond82

Doesn't look bad at all!

The triple I have is a road triple, and the inner and middle chainrings are almost exactly in the same places as the two rings of a double crankset (there's a 1 mm difference). That makes it perfect in terms of chainline, but it also means that the ring to be removed is the outer one, which looks less nice. Removing the inner ring like you did gives a much nicer look I think!

raymond82

I was just checking, from what I understand the BCD of the outer rings on an MTB crankset is 104, making the smalles chainring available a 32t. I would like to go even lower (30 or 28) so I would have to use the inner rings so a road triple with the outer ring taken of is the only option.

HillRider

The inner ring of an MTB crank is limited to 32T but almost all MTB cranks are triples with a granny ring that will take down to a 20T chainring.

raymond82

I know, I was mainly referring to bud16415's case since he used the outer two rings. If it were possible with and MTB it would be a nicer solution simply because taking the granny ring away is less noticeable than taking the outer ring away.