Chainring compatibility

Tom Anderson said:

Oh, but that actually does make sense. Brakes have to be designed to
stop you at any of the speeds you can go, so if you have a 9-speed
groupset, you need a brake that works at more speeds than if you have
an 8-speed groupset.

I want a groupset that goes to 11

-dan

Tom Anderson said:

Quoted message said:

You might need to change the BB anyway even if the new cranks fit a
square taper. Different cranks require different axle lengths, and
there are two standards of square taper.

Are they different enough that it's really a problem? I have SR Suntour
cranks now, so i assume a JIS BB; Shimano will fit that, but what about
Truvativ? Aaargh ...

Sadly yes, I can confirm from experience that they /are/
sufficiently different. I wanted to migrate from a
standard Suntour road double to a compact, bought
an unbranded crankset (I later identified it as
an unbadged Sugino unit) that I then customised with
the rings that I wanted, but when I came to fit it
I found it was so loose on the taper that a proper
fit could not be achieved. I then spent rather too
much on a TA Axix titanium BB (about GBP 70, if I remember
correctly), then found that the crankset didn't engage
fully enough so the chainline was adversely affected.
The most reliable advice I have read (and which I
will follow faithfully should I even need to go
through all this again) is to buy your BB and
crankset from the same manufacturer !

Philip Taylor

Tom Anderson said:

On the subject of this whole 8-speed-cranksets-with-9-speed-cassettes
thing, a friend of mine was highly skeptical. In order to allay his
fears, and of course not because i have the slightest doubt in you,
i'm going to get a second opinion from rec.bicycles.tech ...

It's always good to get a second opinion, so I'm not offended at all. I
know what it'll be, though :-) (I learn't a lot from r.b.t).

~PB

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Pete Biggs said:

Even *brakes* are sometimes described as "9 speed"! As if they
couldn't be used with 8 or 10-speed systems! Actually it's just
because they're part of a 9-speed groupset and visually match the
other components.

On the subject of this whole 8-speed-cranksets-with-9-speed-cassettes
thing, a friend of mine was highly skeptical. In order to allay his fears,
and of course not because i have the slightest doubt in you, i'm going to
get a second opinion from rec.bicycles.tech ...

tom

--
only positivistic reason and the forms of philosophy based on it are
universally valid -- Pope Benedict XVI

In article said:

I want a groupset that goes to 11

Why don't you just make ten louder^W faster and make ten be the top number
and make that a little louder^W faster?

(But if you were serious:
http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/Campag_to_release_11_speed_groupset_article_257457.html
http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/campagnolo-moves-to-11-speed-16805
http://www.cyclingnews.com/tech.php?id=/tech/2008/news/06-04
and the counter argument:
http://bikehugger.com/2008/06/why_do_you_hate_me_valentino.htm