Originally Posted by supton

I have a 40/52 currently, with a Shimano Z-something FD (forget off hand) -- nothing fancy. I've been thinking about changing to a 34/46, but out of curiousity, what about keeping the 52 and doing 34/52? I can't imagine the shifting being all the smooth, going from small to large; but what are the recommendations for max split between the two chainrings?

I've been thinking 34, as that would go 15% down--the extra gear that I've wanted--and 46 as it would keep FD change to 12T, or about 2 gears worth. But I'd probably miss that 52 on some of the long downhills; more importantly, 46-ish chainrings are not too cheap (at least to me). I'm not against something like a 36 or perhaps a 38; but I'm not sure that a 38 would give the full amount of drop that I might like. I'd love one of those triple 30/42/52 (well, maybe as a 30/40/52, as I've liked my current 40), but I suspect that is more work than it is worth on my bike.

The freewheel is a 6 speed 13-30, btw. 110 BCD chainrings too. Thanks for the comments.