Finding the illusive ideal commuting crankset
 

I am in the process of building up a new commuter bike from scratch with all new parts that will hopefully be a highly enjoyable ride. However, I'm having a hard time selecting a crankset that fits my needs.

My current setup is 1-10 with a 38 chain ring in front and a 12-26 cassette in back. My new bike is going to be 2-10 with a a 12-30 10 speed rear cassette. I commute about 10 miles a day, 6 days a week. Most of my commute is rolling hills with about 20% steep hills and 20% flats. The front 38 chainring I'm currently using fits 80% of my needs and I can handle climbing steep hills moderately well, but I spin out coming back down. Ideally I'd like a 38-46 crankset...but this does not seem to be very common. I'm aware of cyclocross cranksets that are often 36/46, but I will be in the small ring 80% of the time and 36 is just a little too small.

My max budget for the crank (without bottom bracket) is $160 and these are the cranks I've considered:

Velo Orange Polyvalent 46/30 Crankset - Love the way this looks with the chain guard, but the 30 tooth small ring is way too small. Wish it came 46/38.

2012 Shimano Tiagra 52/39: The 39 would be perfect most of the time, but I feel the 52 might be total overkill.

Shimano CX50 46/36: The gearing is close to being good, but I think this crankset looks bland and I do care about aesthetics.

Any suggestions? :)

Get a compact road crank 50-34 with a 12-27 on the rear. That should get you up and down a pretty wide range of hills.

Could you just swap out the chainrings to get the gearing that you want? Save to original chainring as a spare, or trade fodder, or just sell it, or build up a single speed around it.

FSA either made or makes one, but I can't seem to find it for sale or on their website. Here is a photo of one that sold on ebay fairly recently though.

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/FSA-GOSSAMER-...7QQ~~60_57.JPG

Sounds like what you are looking for is the way, more or less, that many cross bikes are set up. So it should be possible to find a cross specific compact crank. I have an FSA compact crank that came with a 38/48 that works very well for me. This one might work (36/46): http://www.amazon.com/FSA-Gossamer-M.../dp/B002SR02RY. I have been thinking about getting this from Soma: http://store.somafab.com/suswcrdocr.html. I think if you google around for cross specific compact cranks, you will find what you are looking for.

Thanks for the suggestions! I should have specified slightly further:

I want a double crankset with the small ring having 38,39, or 40 teeth and the big ring with 46 or 48 teeth. ALSO, has to be available in silver (because a black crankset would look silly when every other component is silver on this build).

I know I'm probably just going to end up having to buy a crankset and switch out the rings, but I was hoping that maybe there is a ready made crankset out there that comes like this already that I don't know about. :rolleyes:

I'd just go for a wider-range cassette, and I dunno, tuck and coast on the downhills? ;)

You can get close. Campagnolo sells a 10 speed Cyclocross crank in silver with 46-36 chain rings

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=255857

http://www.campagnolo.com/jsp/en/gro...S_catid_16.jsp

Ordering one from your favorite UK retailer (ex: Ribble) will be much, much less expensive than buying it stateside.

Single ring is fine, think about a hybrid rear hub.. 3 speed IGH + a cassette.
S-A and Sram both make one.

the IGH part has advantages since you can downshift the hub at the stoplight.
while stopped , after using a higher gear right until the light turned red.

I'm running a VO Grand Cru crankest 48/34 with a SRAM 11-36 cassette, long cage derailleur. I love it for a 19 mi o/w, half-hilly commute.

why not stay with the 1x10, use a 44 t chain ring and 12-36 cassette ? will give you a gear-in range from approx 33-99.

I run a silver sugino xd crank, 39- 48 with 30 -12 cassette. Just buy the rings you need.