My bike is (mostly) Veloce 10-speed. The rear derailler is medium cage, and the cassette is 13-29. The first crankset was an unbranded Sugino XD 48-34.

I like my hilly rides. When I hit 65, I swapped the crankset for a doublized Centaur 10-speed, with the original 30T granny, a TA Vento "intermediaire" 46T in the middle, and no outer ring. That was easy, requiring only the right length BB (Centaur square taper, easy and economical), the "new takeoff" crankset from eBay, and some single chainring bolts, and removing a chain link pair and lowering the front derailller. The existing shifters, deraillers, cassette, and chain all worked perfectly. I am very happy with it.



The roadmap was/is/will be:
Road compact 48-34
Sub-compact 46-30
Semi-Geezer 44-28
Geezer Gears 42-26
Ultra-Geezer 40-24

I have collected all the BCD 135 rings for this. Starting fresh, I might go with a 110/74 crankset just to make it easier to find rings, but since I have managed to get all I could need, I can stick with the Centaur triple crankset. The bike is "all Campy", as we used to say, with the minor transgression of a KMC chain.

As the rings get smaller, the front derailler will need to be lowered. If your frame has a braze-on FD mount, you will need to get a FD dropper adapter. The other problem I anticipate will be the cage not hugging the circumferences of the rings, causing less crisp front shifting. I expect to install a Deda Dog Fang chain keeper at about geezer gears time. At some point the tail of the FD might hit the chainstay, but I haven't calculated the inner ring diameter at which that will happen. Maybe about the time I am 80.

oldschoolbike