Originally Posted by
Tourist in MSN
If you get those stronglight cranks, since they are 110mm BCD, that is what a compact uses. You could start out without the granny gear, instead use a 34T ring in the middle position, but use it as a compact double. Then later if you decide you really want a lower gear, put the third ring on at that time.
There was a company here in the US that sold a bike for touring several decades ago, had two chainrings, but the crankarms were for a triple for those people that might want a lower gear they could add it themselves later.
I did just that on a road bike I love to ride. I left the granny off and used a mountain triple to get a low double gearing. What I like best about it is the small ring is right in the middle of the cluster and the big ring is a straighter line with the smallest cogs. It gave me a nice tight set of mildly low gearing up to about mid high gears. Not having any high gears and having to coast down hills was a good tradeoff for being able to get up the hills in the first place.