Originally Posted by
Drew Eckhardt
50-39-28 x 12-13-14-15-16-17-18-19-21-23 provides a lower gear than you have now, 11T difference in your non-climbing rings, plus 16 and 18 cogs which feel good when you're riding faster solo.
39x12 will let you ride 24% faster at the same cadence before you shift to the big ring compared to 34x13 while still running as smoothly.
IMHO road compact cranks are marketing invention to cut the number of SKUs companies would need to deal with versus triple cranks but don't work as well for rider/weight/fitness/terrain combinations that aren't a good match for 53-39 x 12-23 ten cogs or 53-39 x 12-25 11 speed.
Yeah but... the goal isn't to need gearing this low indefinitely. 50-36 should have good shifting and I'm not sensitive enough to cadence to see a huge draw in 11-23 over 12-25 or 12-27 (especially since I don't care about 50x11 vs 50x12). IMHO, road triples are just about "look, a bajillion overlapping gears!", while bringing very little to the table over a compact and sensible cassette.
The thing I really don't get is Spesh's "mid-compact". 52-36 has the same 16t front shifting issue as 50-34, while only have slightly easier gears than a standard. 50-36 with an 11-2X cassette makes more sense as an "intermediate strength" gearing with a taller top ratio than 50x12. At least I can create that on my own easily enough.