I have an older Stronglight 42/52 crankset now. I was thinking about swapping it out for a Campagnolo 9sp Veloce Crankset 39/53. Besides the smaller chainwheel, will there be a difference in the ride with the Campy set? Am I just better off staying with the Stronglight set?

Another thing I was wondering about is the size of the steer tube. I measured mine at 1 1/8 inches, that's just the tube, not the headset. Are headsets measured by the size of the steer tube? If I wanted to get a threadless fork, can I fit one onto my bike?

Thanks

You probably won't notice a huge difference in the way the crankset feels, but having a smaller small ring is enough to make the change, IMO. Of course, you could just find a 39t ring for your current crankset (assuming the BCD allows) and achieve the same thing.

The two most common fork steerer sizes are 1" and 1 1/8", so it's possible that your fork is 1 1/8". 1" threaded seems to be far more common than 1 1/8" threaded though. Either way, you can put a threadless fork on, you just need a threadless headset and the proper (non-quill) stem. Get the correct steerer size for your system. Headsets are measured by the size of the steer tube they fit.

Many Thanks justinb

I'll take your Stronglight.

Karl

How much would you pay?

Assuming this is a Stronglight 93 crankset, the bcd is 122mm and the smallest ring it will accept is a 38t. It seems like everyone who has a #93(including me) wants one of those 38t rings which are rare to begin with. When I occasionally see them come up on ebay they always go for pretty big bucks. The 40t rings are even getting hard to find.

I just put new Veloce 10spd compact cranksets on my wife's and my old Italian steel bikes that have 7spd freewheels. The cranks were only $40 each on Ebay. We live in a hilly area and the rideability difference from the old 42T small chain rings is amazing. It was a straight swap on the 111 mm BB spindles, with some FD adjustments and chain shortening.

PM'ed you

Karl

you can use Sheldon Brown's gear calculator to compare gear inches, gain ratio, or mph @ whatever rpm with whatever gear combinations you want to enter. Going from a 42 to a 39 is like getting an extra gear on the low end.

LINK