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Old 02-13-09, 02:08 AM
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Chris_W
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Join Date: May 2007
Location: Switzerland
Posts: 2,345

Bikes: road+, gravel, commuter/tourer, tandem, e-cargo, folder

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I recommend going the route of getting a standard road triple crankset and putting custom chainrings on the inner and middle positions of that. This will make it easy to get something that matches your current bottom bracket. The BCD on those is normally 130mm for the middle (and outer) rings and 74mm for the inner ring, so you'll be able to get any combination you want. I do this and run a 26-42 setup on my commuting/touring bike (with a 12-27 9-speed cassette) and a 28-46 on my racing/road bike (with an 11-26 10-speed cassette) and lovely the gear choice I get on it with the simplicity of a double cransket (I spin at a high cadence all the time and do a lot of long climbs, so the gears on the compact are just not in the right range for me).

EDIT: If you go for a big difference in tooth count between the inner and next ring like this then make sure you get some sort of chain retention device to prevent chain derailment off the inner chainring when doing fast down-shifts.
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