Hey all. I'm pretty new to cycling and have a few questions as i'm still a noob about the mechanics of the bike. I just purchased my 2nd road bike, a Trek Madone 2.1 with SRAM apex groupset with a compact crank and 11-32 cassette. I plan to race on this bike, so I want to upgrade to a standard SRAM FORCE BB30 2.2 Crankset and the pg-1070 cassette (12-27). Will i also need to purchase an upgraded bottom bracket for the crankset to work with this bike? Also, i think i will need to upgrade the chain but someone correct me if i am wrong.

thanks for the help

Why do you need to upgrade?

If it is all flat roads why not a 11-23 cassette?

I havea trek 1.1 right now that i have been riding with a compact and 12-25 8 speed cassette and the low gears are more then enough to get me up hills around here, so i want to stay away from such a large cassette. My friend stated that with compact crank i will likely not have high enough gears in some cases during the collegiate season here.

I still doing hill climbing a couple times a month so I still want gears to get me up those occasionally.

I went to a 12-30 10sp and love it, much more than the 11-28

there's no reason to change your crank. Depending on your strength, and the terrrain where you're going to race, you may want to add an 11-23 or 11-26 cassette to your quiver to have tighter spacing.

If you're going to be racing, a far better investment than upgrading the crank, would be a second set of wheels, with a cassette. You need (at least want) spare wheels for the wheel pit, or wheel truck, you don't need a new crank.

So decent set of wheels, with a more closely spaced cassette, and switch out the back wheel/casette as conditions indicate.

Yea i do already have a set of carbon aero wheels in mind that i will be purchasing at the same time or shortly afterwards.

your friend doesn't know what's he talking about.

50/11 at 120rpm is 44 mph.

If you're racing in extremely hilly terrain, there may rarely be an occassion on a descent that you'd want more gear. However, even in those situations, it typically doesn't pay to pedal after you hit the low 40's. Instead pedal hard at the top of the descent, spin out, and then tuck. Th energy it takes to accelerate a bike from 44mph to 45 mph is not worth the effort.

unless i was getting a power meter, I think the crankset would be one of the last upgrades i do.

FWIW, I race Cat 3 ( which is a bit more competitive than Collegiate D) with a 50/34 and 11-23. I've never ran out of gear with that setup, including descending in Colorado

Another cheaper/different alternative (as mentioned in the other cassette thread going on) is to upgrade your chainrains to 52/36 and run a slightly tigher cassette in the back. Good luck!

I've done a bunch of masters races (also faster than college D) with a 50x12 top gear.

Your friend is wrong about the gearing, and he's an idiot for telling you to buy a whole crank when you only need chainrings.

Trek bikes also do not use BB30.

The only thing you need to upgrade is the engine. Save your money.

On the chain, depending on the gearing you end up with you may need to adjust the length, and if you need a longer chain that may mean a new one. But as long as you are staying with 10 speeds there is no need to 'upgrade'.

My son races crits and and uses a 52/39 and 13-25 cassette. I suppose he might change the cassette for a road race with high speed descents, but the close spacing is very important.

What everybody else is saying... Switch out your chain rings. And your cassette, Realistically you dont need to do any of it, and do the cassette first, you probably wont even need a new chain.

A new crank and bb will be several hundred dollars. Cosmetic at most. These upgrades are around 50 bucks.

Exactly - I "upgraded" my crank from Ultegra 6700 50/34 Silver to Ultegra 6700 50/34 Glossy Grey...PURELY cosmetic. (glad I did it though...!)