Originally Posted by
Don Johnson
I have thought about the 22-32-44 front end but have been told that with the 105 shifters and Tiagra FD, I'd have a lot of tinkering I'd have to do to make it work and I'd have to buy a different FD. I am not a hardware expert...yet but can one just swap out the crank arms without changing those shifters and the FD?
No you won't have to do a lot of tinkering. You could even just change the inner ring to a 22 (better than only a 2 tooth change) and leave everything else the same. I am currently using a 46/34/
20 crank on my T800 with 105 STI and a Tiagra front derailer. It works just fine and didn't take a whole lot of extra effort to make it work properly. In fact, it too nothing special at all.
The change isn't all that hard either. You just need the proper bolt center diameter and bolt number for your crank. I believe that yours is a 64mm inner. Get a steel ring for durability.
OldZephyr has it right on gearing too. I regularly
pedal up steep crap in my 20/34 combination. You aren't going to fall over and, to be honest, 60 rpm in that gear is a bit slow to be spinning the pedals.