Hey all, I been commuting by my MTB for a while and I love it. One issue though the gearing is not optimal for the terrain I ride or how I like to ride it. My current crank is stock (FSA Alpha Drive 42/32/22) my problem is that I never use the smallest ring and the tallest is not tall enough for me. What are my options? Any suggestions? I would like my tallest to be my mid ring my mid to become my lowest and something taller for downhill’s. I am sorry I am new to working on my own bike so I am not sure what I can do and if it's even worth it. I have plenty tools at home as I work on my own cars most of the time, I don't mind buying bike specific tools as I am gear head and more toys to play the better . Any advice?

Specs for my bike you can find it hear:
https://www.cannondale.com/catalog/pr...4/category/86/

I know this is not perfect commuter bike, I bought it with intention of replacing my old MTB and XC riding but I found that commuting is more fun, healthier, to some extend safer, and very rewarding. So any help would be appreciated.

You can probably replace just the chainrings if they have bolts instead of rivets. If they're riveted, you'll have to replace the whole crank.

an mtb is probably going to have issues with crank clearance with a road crank, which is what it seems you will need.

It's a 29er and it looks like there is plenty of clearance.

It looks like it have bolts instead of rivets, so now the questions where can I get the chainrings?

You can start here.

What's the range of the cassette in the back?

Not sure I know it's a 8 Speed there is no other info on Cannondale webside, how do I find that out? Thanks.

Awesome link. Thank you.

Basically it's just the number of teeth on each cog. So if the large cog has 30 teeth and the small cog has 13 the it would be 13-30T

Another option besides changing the chain rings (or in addition) would be a different cassette skewed more towards smaller cogs, but if you've already got an 11 tooth cog it's not going to matter.

If you go with significantly larger chainrings, it may impact how well the front derailleur shifts assuming it's designed for the chainrings you have.

Are you sure about that? Very often anything bigger than a 48T big ring will hit the chainstays on a mountain bike. Ideally, you'd also get a new derailleur if you went bigger than 48T, but you might be able to get away with not doing that.

You could just swap chainrings, but a new crankset can be nearly as cheap as a new set of rings. OTOH, it looks like you've got a square-taper bottom bracket, so you may have to replace that also if you get a new crank, as square taper spindle lengths vary from crank to crank. You could get a set of rings for $60-$70, but for $100 you could get a Deore M590 crank with external bottom bracket.

Also, I think these are the rings you'd need: https://www.universalcycles.com/shopp...p?category=648

Going by the link to their website you posted, it's a 34-11 cassette 8-speed. A 34 big cog is huge, much lower than you'd need unless you were hauling 100 pounds of stuff up a steep incline. You could get a standard 11-28 cassette pretty easily, but that only gives you 1 higher gear.

From the pics, it looks like the cranks are 4-arm cranks, which should be 104/64mm set. After you read Sheldon's article on them, measure the bolt pattern and make sure. You can get chainring sets from tons of online retailers, including Amazon. I'd stick with a 28/38/48 set, so you can keep the same front derailer. If you go bigger than a 48 front ring, you may need to change other parts around, and I'm guessing you don't want to spend the money to do that right now.

I thing 48 is all I would need for now without spending too much $ (stock is 42) based on many of you recomendation I think changing/upgrading to a different crank might be smarter long term option. Something like 48/36/26 should be enough for my needs. When I think about it now, it makes more sense if I just destroy the current first in order to maximize my $.

Than going with new crank and casset might be a smarter move.