what exactly is a compact crankset?
 

can someone give me a quick explanation of what that term actually means?

A double chainring with less teeth. Instead of a normal 53/39 - 50/34 or 50/36

The "compact" refers to the distance between the bolt holes (accross the crank spider or chainring.) The distance on a normal road crankset is 130mm, while a compact setup is 110mm. This smaller distance allows for smaller chainrings - something borrowed from the mountain bike world.

Yeah, basically a crankset with smaller rings. Allows you to get more climbing gearing in with the smaller front ring, and a 50x11 is a larger gear than a 53-12, so you dont have to lose your top end, either.

Of course, if you were 60-11 all the way, you could just put on that custom made 80/60 front 3/6 rear and destroy the world! ;)

A compact crankset allows us normal folks more usable real world gears.

Compact cranks have been around for years in touring and CX bikes.
The Bolt Circle Diameter (BCD) of the crank determines the smallest ring. Campy has a BCD of 135mm, and can take a 38t. Shimano has BCD=130 and can take perhaps a 37t. Most compact cranks are 110 and can use 34t
Compact cranks give you much more freedom to select sensible gear ratios.
The other dimension of importance is the crank length , which is another can of worms altogether.

Campa is introducing some compact cranksets in their 2005 line.

Cheers...Gary

FSA has the new stuff up,sweet.

There are 33s.

So general consensus is that it is a good thing?

...except for Mr. 53-11, of course....

But because he's such a god riding his 80-4 singlespeed with 400mm cranks, hes just totally out of this league ;)

Yeah, I think they are a good thing. Wish I had the money for a set.

Okay - I guess I'm a little confused. If the compact crankset is a good thing and you don't sacrifice the top end by having it, why are there "non-compact" cranksets? Is tradition behind the curve?

-Jim

No...if you are riding a rolling stage of just about any race, you probably never leave the large chain ring anyway...after about Cat 3, guys really do spin out at the high end going downhill...but for most amateur racers, compact is the wave of the future...see it more and more on good local guy's bikes.

Well yeah, to a point,depending on what you need or prefer for gearing. Even with a 130 BCD 42/53 rings were not uncommon a number of years ago. Old cranksets with a 144 BCD allowed only about a 42 small ring.110 BCD is nothing that new,it just gained popularity when Tyler used it a few years ago. It can be an alternative to a triple,but doesn't really replace a triple for many riders.it's just another choice.

Most people want the low gear they can get with the smaller chain ring - 34 teeth or so and they don't want to run a triple. If you need a low gear to climb with, then compact crank will work and you won't have to buy a new bottom bracket to fit a triple, or a new front derailuer. However, you can get a 39/29 low gear combination with a standard double which is pretty low.

Yeah, if you buy Campy, don't mind a 13 and wide cog spacing.

IMHO, if you need a 39/29 to get up the hill, then you most likely can't turn more than a 53/15 or 14 on flat land for any length of time so you have all the gearing you can use.

Myself and a couple of other non pro friends, had already gone to 50T front big rings. Shimano makes a 50T 130BDC ring. My LBS ordered mine for me. You won't see them in a Nashbar or Performance mag. All I can say is that it provided my friends and I, a more usable cassette. You might want to try the Shimano 50T. It's about $40 which is a whole lot cheeper than a complete compact crank.

Campa's new compacts will require a new front der. At least they are making an optimized one to go with them. Different shape for better shifting characteristics.

Cheers...Gary

Even campy say it ISN'T required,but the compact derailer will be more perfecly matchd to the compact crank/rings.
Standard double FDs have been working fine with comapct cranks.

I have a triple FD from my conversion and it works great, Campy mirage...which takes a whupping here, but works great for me.

Depends on the hill, doesn't it? My standard 39/26 seems to work okay most of the time. I'm working on climbing better (and definitely improving - only been at this a few months), but once in a while, I encounter one of those killer hills.

If it's flat then I like the 53/12, although sometimes it does get to my knees after a while.

-Jim