Originally Posted by
Steve_sr
So this proposal looks like it just converts the road crank to a MTB crank. This sounds like a viable solution as long as I can find a 24 and 46 tooth ring for the front. Does Shimano have the 24 and 46 rings still available? How would I find the part numbers? Any other quality alternatives?
More of an old-style touring triple than an MTB crank, by my lights, but yeah, kinda.
I don't know if Shimano makes a 46Tx130mm chainring, but lots of other companies do. The Suginos are even ramped and pinned, although they're twice as expensive as the non-ramped ones. Even plain chainrings should shift pretty well over a 7 tooth gap, but it's probably worth the extra 30 bucks on an STI bike. Front indexing needs all the help it can get. The granny can be the cheapest one you can get, they don't need any shift aids, and most don't have any. There's even a school of thought that says that your granny ring should be steel, because the smaller the ring, the faster it wears, and, being small, the weight penalty is negligible. That's probably overkill for a recreational road bike.
--Shannon