Evening all...

Just saw an ad one town over. A guy is selling a shimano 105 53/39 compact crankset. I'm currently running sora triple crankset and in all the time I've had the bike I've yet to use the granny ring. Should I or shouldn't I... And more importantly, CAN I? Will it fit?

Gracias a everyone.

Oops. I've just realised this isn't a compact. Oh well, should I look for a compact anyway?

You will need to change your front derailleur, and shifter to work with that set.

I put a 50/34 on my Lemond that had a triple, I didn't have to change anything. Sora sti works using the normal middle to large position to shift. Derailer handles compact flawlessly.
That's my experience.

And shifters?

I am using Sora with the thumb lever downshift, original to the bike.

Choose your gears according to your ability and terrain you ride in.

Alberto Contador has raced with a compact crankset and an 11-32 cassette.

The ego invested in 53-39 cranks never ceases to amaze me.

What if you're not climbing the alps, and don't need a compact ?

"The pros use it, so you should too" never ceases to amaze me.

No.

On flats: try riding in the big ring of your sora triple. If it's OK to use only the big one - then get a compact. If it is not good and you end up using the middle 39 tooth ring, then compact will not work for you. Small ring is too small for flats, while the big ring is too big. Triple gives you more gear range, at a 100 gram weight penalty. Why give that away?!

Switching from a triple to double doesn't really accomplish anything, other than get rid of the inner ring. You could just unscrew it, and set the limit screw on your derailleur to only work on 2 chainrings..
Make note of the lowest gear you need, so you can get it right the first time on your next bike.

There is nothing wrong with a standard crank. I have them on all of my bikes and love them.................

Of course there is a third granny ring sitting next to them just in case!

Standard would be perfect for me, if cassettes starting from 13, or 14 teeth were easily available.

8 speed would do: 14-15-17-19-21-25-28-32

I'd prefer that - longer lasting.

I suppose I'll just leave it for the moment. I'm really comfortable on the middle ring riding the big cog in the rear casette, when I hit the hills. I don't know how much a compact would help my speeds going up a hill. I'm averaging 16kmh on an 8km 7% climb.

You missed his point completely.

Except he was making the exact opposite argument. The pros generally use standard 53-39, which is why it's so popular, but as Achoo pointed out, even Contador has swapped out and gone with a 34-32 low gear when the terrain demanded. So to stick with a "standard" to be like the pros and suffer on a 39 up the hills, when even the best climber in the peloton is happy to switch to a 34 is bizarre thinking.

FWIW, I struggled with the compact gearing on the flat when I first got it, but now I can maintain 20-ish mph on our regular Flat Friday after-work rides in 34-14/13, only switching to the big ring for the final sprint.

2, 3, and 4 tooth jumps from one cog to the next would drive me absolutely insane. Yes, I know it used to be that way, but we also had to boot computers with 5 1/4" floppy disks.

I ride 11 speed with a 12-25 cassette, and having 12-19 with no gaps is heaven.

I don't have a compact but I run 50/39 on my crank. 39 is small enough for hills around here and I like the 50 as it keeps me on the big ring for about %99+ of the time.

I prefer 2 and 3 tooth jumps at lower speeds. Makes one gear shift do more "work". At the fast end of the cassette, I like 1 and 2 tooth jumps. Riding a 10 speed cassette on a road bike and the last 2 cogs (11 and 12) are almost never used. With a standard double, I'd need a bigger than 28 at the slow side of the cassette.

Some day we'll all be on direct-drive CVT transmissions, and people will ask "how did they ever go from a 3.785 to a 3.533 ratio with nothing in between? I just couldn't do that..."

If I live that long I'll welcome it with open arms. Life's too short to be a Luddite.

I would keep the triple. The granny gear is not doing you any harm.

Depends on time and money. My experience is that anything over 8 cogs at the rear has smaller gaps between cogs. Makes it more sensitive to dirty/worn cables/housing, takes more frequent tuning. It is also a lot more expensive. If that all is not an issue for you, or you need tighter gearing enough, then go for it. As well as the CVT.

I've been to the 10 speed and realised that for my riding, budget, maintenance hassle etc 3x8 is the sweet spot. Anything more is actually worse for me.

My commuter bicycle at this time is a bomb proof 3x6 speed MTB. And I wouldn't consider my 3x10 speed road bike a better one. If I had to choose just one bike, the road bike would go.

My 11 speed is Di2 so there aren't the cable/indexing issues and I never have to mess with adjusting it, but like you said it's going to be an $800-1000 upcharge over the mechanical version. And I now have a PowerTap that I can't use on one of my bikes.

I do have to admit that a coworker of mine has mechanical 11 speed Ultegra and it seems like he chases RD adjustments around more than he did with 10 speed.