Tunnelrat81

Well I have somewhat of an update here.

After my LBS spent some time on the phone with FSA verifying that my wifes bike DID in fact have the newest and improved chainrings on it, they suggested that we try a sram chain, as it's more flexible and would be less likely to jam between the chainrings on downshifts. Today I took the bike back in and had them put the new chain on and so far there is a huge improvement on downshifts. Haven't gotten a stuck chain once on any of our trial runs ( and I did a lot of shifting) but a definite ease on the pedal torque is still necessary to get the chain to climb to the big ring. It's much better than it was, but time will tell whether this is livable for my wife or still severely annoying. So far the switch to the sram chain appears to be helping out the situation, and for now I'm satisfied. But as we all know, unless the Mrs. is happy...the problem hasn't been fully resolved. =) Thanks again for your input.

-Jeremy

professorbob

I just got a new bike with Gossamer Compact, Ultegra FD and 105 Brifters. Shifted beautifully in both directions until the front brifter blew up and had to be replaced. I upgraded to Ultegra and will find out how this setup works tomorrow.

Cheshyre

Wow.. I have no idea what's up with your setup. I have FSA Gossamer ISIS with a 105 front der, ulte rear der, on a 10speed shimano cassette. It works beautifully. After the cables stretched out, shifting has been totally predictable and happens as soon as I click the levers. I can shift with no problem so long as I'm not totally mashing on the pedals.

orl2222

Had the same problem on my Fuji Team 08' with FSA Compact, My LBS did a couple of things, switched out the FSA for a R700, added a spacer on the crank side. This fixed most of the problem. Switching out to Ultegra brifters really made a big difference. Also you might try a Tiagra front derailleur, it has a wider gate that might help with ramping up to the big ring.Don't worry, the Tiagra front derailleur is a few grams heavier, still functions the same.

soma5

My daughter has the same bike and had the same problem. Our LBS swapped the FSA crank for a set of 105s. Problem gone. It's not the compact gearing, it's the FSA crank.

adam

It took me some fiddling, but once I got my Gossamer compact (and my SLK compact for that matter) dialled in properly with my Ultegra derailleur, it was perfect. It took some time getting to it and of all things I had to change was to have the cable much tighter than I'm used to setting up my other bikes with. Once I got the cable tension perfect, everything worked fantastic.

Ultegra or 105 - shouldn't be that big a difference that you have to swap out cranks.

challaday

I just put an SLK compact on my bike a couple of weeks ago, so I probably have about 150 miles max on it. My drivetrain is Dura-Ace 9 speed. FD shifting is not as precise as with my 39/53 FSA Carbon Team Issue that I took off, but not nearly as bad as what is being described by the OP.

I was told that the Dura-Ace FD may not like the 16 tooth gap from 34 to 50 and I have to say I probably agree, but I haven't had any effect other than slower/clunkier shifts to the 50. The pain is that because of where my strength curve sits, I have to change between the 34 and 50 quite a bit.

Oh, for some reason, trimming the FD with the "half-stroke" of the small lever feels way more vague now. It used to trim "inward" with a positive snap, now it trims inward with almost no resistance to prevent me from shifting all the way onto the 34.

wvxc

When I switched to my Goss, I switched the FD to a Goss too. It's as smooth as I could want. The 105 FD I had didn't agree with the new Gossamer crank, and I only took 1 ride to figure it out.

pabuck

Has anyone noticed this on a Gossamer triple? I haven't been on the 50 enough to notice yet.

BarracksSi

I haven't had an FSA double (got a triple MTB version on another bike, but it's fine), but I had that exact problem with a Truvativ standard crank, 105 FD, and 105 chain. I got the crank swapped (under warranty, and not for shifting) with a Shimano 105 compact and Ultegra chain, and it shifts great.

I tried everything with the Truvativ crank. Maybe it was the chain (my scientific side realizes that changing it also changed the experiment), but I can't deny that my current setup is better.

BarracksSi

Ah, cool. Nice to hear that the new chain worked.