Originally Posted by
Homeyba
We are pretty close in our thinking and you are so right that the answer is rarely just throwing on a compact or a triple. There are so many choices and options out there it isn't even funny. That's why people really need to take a look at themselves and decide what they are doing and what they want to get out of their cycling before they just jump out there and spend a bunch of money. Ideally everyone would own several bikes with different set-ups and a box of chainrings and cassettes to mix and match with. That'd probably be too much trouble for most people though.
We are pretty close in thought. My post came off as anti-triple but i didn't mean for it to be that way. Like I said I'm pretty neutral and feel that what works for rider A on course A may not for rider B or course B. Multiple bikes is definately a good way to go and I have been toying around with getting an aluminum Sectuer because It shares geometry with my roubaix for half the price so I can match my position and make one a mountain climbing bike.
Originally Posted by
Homeyba
That's a rather ingenious solution. I have three different bikes.
I've never tried to use a mtn bike crank because a 24 fits on both my Tru-Vativ and FSA cranks with an Ultegra (2006-8 6700) triple FD. Does your bike have an odd shaped seat tube that the shimano FD won't clear it?
The seattube junction with the Bottom Bracket is this huge square layup of carbon so the knuckle/spring of the triple FD would hit the seat tube before it could drop the chain to the inner ring using the 109mm Ultegra BB. The 112 XTR V1, and 118 Ultegra V1 Bottom brackets allowed the spring to clear the frame but the chain line was horrible. My chainline was starting out 2.5mm off(per side) due to the smaller spacing of the rear axle relative to what the cranks were designed for, and then add a triple 118mm BB that is 4.5mm wider(per side) with a crank set that is wider than a road crank, and I was getting ghost shifts up front if I went too high on the cassette. Using the 112 eliminated the ghost shifts but the chain line was still above 50mm and the chain almost looked twisted when in the middle ring at the top end of the cassette. Using the 109mm Ultegra BB brought the chainline to 49mm(dead center of the recommended 48-50mm for that crankset) but brought with it the FD issues I mentioned. It was a lengthy trial and error process but I wanted to try to minimize costs and use what I had available. The only items I had to purchase were the adaptor and the rings. I definately do not recommend this approach to anyone without alot of experience working on bikes or the parts available to try different BB/FD combinations but for me it worked out ok.
On a sidenote, at one point I was sent a 5 arm 48t ring instead of a 4 arm so I winded up meeting IBOHUNT for my first ride with the rig having only the 34-24 installed. Luckily we coasted down the mountains because with only a 12x34 my cadence would shoot through the roof everytime I tried to pedal on anything above 21-22 mph.
