Compact Crank on 1983 Benotto?
 

I'm interested in running compact Centaur cranks on my Benotto. Will I run into any problems with clearance for the front derailleur? I can post some pics and measurements of the braze on if that would help.
Thanks!

square taper or outboard bearing?

If anything compacts are smaller and don't run into any sort of issues with clearance as far as I know.
If your FD is the brazed on variety, how high is it set up currently? I've heard of some frames running into a minor problem where they can't get the FD low enough because of the swap.

Outboard, and I've never built the bike up yet, it's new to me.
By clearance, I meant getting the FD low enough for the 34 tooth.

Much depends on how low you can set your front derailleur and on the tooth drop for which it was designed. Newer road cages are generally optimized for 53-39, but most will work quite nicely with 50-36, and if you can lower the mechanism far enough, 48-34. A 16-tooth or larger drop may cause rough shifting, chain drop, chain snag, and other nasty issues, unless one shifts very carefully at all times. (I have run 48-40-24 on my mountain bike in years past, and a successful 24-to-40 upshift does require "judgment, brains, and maturity.")

So, ultimately, my goal is to take a little off the low end with this bike.

I have trouble pushing anything harder than say, 53- 16 or so. The only time I ever use anything harder than that is if I'm pushing hard downhill. Is that normal?

I suppose I could run compact cranks with 50-36 or 39, instead of the standard compact 34 to make shifting a little smoother. Is that an option?

My new-ish FSA compact 50-34 has no troubles with a non-compact Ultegra FD. There are compact specific front derailleurs if needed.

53-16 on the flats is fine; that's 26mph at 100rpm.

I guess that's a great point.
I never ride with a computer so I never know how fast I'm actually going. Maybe I'm doing alright then!