Originally Posted by
HillRider
At the risk of committing sacrilege, you could also use a Shimano 130/74 mm triple road crank. Newer 105 cranks come 50/39/30 and the 30T granny can be easily be replaced with a 26T granny.
That's very interesting - I remember reading about "Shimergo" set-ups before.
Note to Ultraman, a compact is NOT the same as a triple. It doesn't and can't have the same range. If you need really low gears, a compact won't give you the options a triple will.
To be fair, I did say I was willing to sacrifice the upper part of my range. A lot of cross racers discard their big chainring, and I have even less need to use one. A 44/30 combination - or even better a 44/26 - would suit me very well.