I want to go to a compact crankset on my Giant TCR C2, but I don't know whether to get the Shimano compact crank or go with something from FSA or Ritchey.
Anyone have any experience using the Shimano? Does it work as advertised with the standard Shimano front derailleur. And will a 50/34 chainring setup work with my 12-27 rear cluster. Seems to me my Ultegra rear derailleur may not handle a 50-27 gear ratio and I might need to go to 11-26.
Thanks!
God bless George Hincapie, and give him as good a chance next year!
I've got Ultegra derailleurs, cassette (12-25), shifters. FSA compact (50-34) crank. Works fine. The Shimano compact would also work fine with what you've got.
Can't remember where I read it so I can't give credit but my experience has lead me to believe that there's truth in it this...
Maximum number of teeth range for proper shifting is typically 29. Calculated like this:
Front D: 50 - 34 = 16 Rear D: 27 - 12 = 15 Add the two = 31 (i.e. too many)
I have the Shimano compact crank now with a 12-25 cassette. It works out to exactly 29 teeth using the calculation and I haven't had any problems.
I had problems with the FSA compact crank when combined with the rest of the drive train (shimano DA) which is why I switched to the Shimano. If you have a bracketed RD hanger, it's no problem because you can lower the deraileur closer to the teeth of the compact crank. If it's a braze on RD, it may still be too high at the lowest setting.
I want to go to a compact crankset on my Giant TCR C2, but I don't know whether to get the Shimano compact crank or go with something from FSA or Ritchey.
Anyone have any experience using the Shimano? Does it work as advertised with the standard Shimano front derailleur. And will a 50/34 chainring setup work with my 12-27 rear cluster. Seems to me my Ultegra rear derailleur may not handle a 50-27 gear ratio and I might need to go to 11-26.
Thanks!
God bless George Hincapie, and give him as good a chance next year!
It should work. The Shimano gear range calculations are a bit on the conservative side. Make your chain just long enough to comfortably wrap the large cog and large chainring, if you have a bit of slack in the 34/12, don't worry about it as you won't be using that combination anyway. The derailleur should handle the 34/13 fine.
At worst, you can use a long cage RD, which would handle any chainring/cassette combination that you want.
I've upgraded my 04 TCR C2 to Ult 10 with a Bontrager 50/36 Compact crankset. I've been using a 12-27 and 11-23 on two wheelsets with no issues. I like having the 27 when I want to be lazy getting up some hills. I've had no problems being in the 50/27 combo but I don't recommend it due to the short chainstays and the extreme angle the chain is in.
