8 Speed Drivetrain, Chainset Upgrade Woes

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stewartbradford

New Member
Hey guys,

I am in the market for a new chainset, currently running a 42/52 and want to change to a compact. However looking about there aren't any 8 speed compact chainsets for sale.

Having run a few permutations through Wheelworks' drivetrain wizard and it looks like I'm a bit screwed in terms of an optimum upgrade.

A 9 speed Campag would work but I can't find a reasonably priced Campag compact chainset and don't intend to move over to a full Campag groupset in the future.

Putting in basically any 9 speed chainset, be it Shimano or FSA (9/10 speed compatible) warns me about chainring/chain compatibility saying that is should work but there might be problems.

Pushing the boat out a wee bit further and considering an upgrade to an SRAM 10 speed (S350 for what it's worth) and I get a warning saying that it will need a narrower chain, but then I have concerns about the cassette - it says that it might be noisy but as long as it shifts I don't mind too much about a bit of noise.

A full upgrade of cassette, chainrings, shifters and rear derailleur is way out of budget at the moment but I was hoping to be able to start a move to either 9 or 10 speed with this upgrade.

So does anyone know if the SRAM upgrade would work, or would a 9 speed Shimano/FSA work better?

It's all too confusing :biggrin:

Any help would be greatly appreciated,

Thanks,

Stewart
 

MartinC

Über Member
Location
Cheltenham
You can get a quality Stronglight Impact compact chainset for about £60 from Spa Cycles - it'll be fine with an 8 speed set up. If you can find a cheap Xenon of Mirage compact that will do too.
 

GrahamG

Guru
Location
Bristol
As per the above - ignore the 9/10 bollocks, it's a crankset so the chainrings will be very slightly narrower than 8 speed (like a tiny amount) which causes no problems whatsoever.
 
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OP
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stewartbradford

New Member
Thanks for the help guys, certainly puts my mind at rest that I can opt for pretty much any chainset I want.

Just to check, this one will work: SRAM Rival Looking at the Stronglight and a few others by the time you add in the cost of a BB it's not a huge price jump to what I imagine is a superior product.

Thanks again.
 
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