I am looking for a new crankset for my touring bike. Many ads say the rings are 8/9 speed compatable. I have a ten speed.

I converted this bike to a 10 speed from a 9 speed without even thinking about this issue and I have no shifting problems at all but now I am moving into MTB cranksets..is there an issue?

Mike

Likely to be no problem. I'm using a 9-speed Shimano road crank (Ultegra 6500-series triple) on an othersise 10-speed drivetrain (shifters, cassette and chain) with no problems. Front shifting is excellent.

Not exactly what you asked about... What kind of crank do you have now--number of teeth on each chainring and chain line if you know it? Also, what is the rear dropout spacing--130 or 135mm?

130mm spaced frame works best with a road crank, which has chian lines of 43.5mm for double and 45mm for triple. MTB triples are 47.5 or 50mm (with the latter becoming standard) and are designed for 135mm or more spacing.

If you use a crank with an older system (e.g. square-taper), you can adjust chain line to some degree with various bottom bracket spindles, but the newer external bearing-2-piece systems have fixed spindle lengths because the spindle is attached to one of the crank arms.

what is coming off is a Truvativ isoflow crankset 48/36/26 and I am looking to get the small ring down to 22 and a smooth transition to the others. It does have square taper bb spindle..drops are 135mm.

Maybe I can just change the chainrings?

EDIT: How many bolts are on the crank - 4 or 5? If it's 4, you can go down to 22T, if it's 5, you can go down to 24T.

Also, what cassette are you using. They make 10-speed cassettes now with 32, 34, or 36T for the largest cog.

Well, this is how this came up..I bought a great set of wheels from a guy that came with an oddball rear free hub, a Shimano FH-7800. The hub calls for only a narrow range of casettes, a CS-7800 or CS-6600 only and, I cannot find any of these casettes with a big gear beyond 28t. I figure, no sweat, I'll just drop some teeth on the front.

To do so I am going to have to go to MTB stuff it appears.

This is all good, I like working on them as much as I like riding them.

I'll check the number of bolts on the crankset in the AM but I think it is five bolt.