Standard or compact?

[grellboy]

Just been virtually building a Dolan bike and came to the part where you pick the chainset and the choice is compact 50/34 or standard 53/39. My current bike is a compact. How different would it feel, riding a standard when I have been used to a compact?

 

[clid61]

Easier riding compact as the legs get older

 

[Cuchilo]

Nothing until you hit a hill .

 

[HLaB]

Just been virtually building a Dolan bike and came to the part where you pick the chainset and the choice is compact 50/34 or standard 53/39. My current bike is a compact. How different would it feel, riding a standard when I have been used to a compact?

What terrain are you riding on/ how do you find hills at the moment and what's your fitness like. If its relatively flat,you find hills easy and you're relatively fit you'll probably find the 53/39 faster unless you are somebody who really likes to spin. If not a 53/39 will wear you out faster make hills harder etc and make you slower. How about a semi compact?

 

[T4tomo]

Compact, the amount of times you wish you had a lower gear far out ways the times you think, if I had a slightly higher gear I could have pedalled a bit faster down this hill.

 

[grellboy]

I live in Norfolk....although I do harbour dreams of one day actually riding up an actual hill.....apparently there are even things called "mowntinns" in other far away places!

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

Triple

 

[Dirk]

Go semi compact (pro compact or whatever else they call it) - 52/36.
I can cope with all the hills around North Devon on this set up and I'm a 62 year old relatively new cyclist. Best of both worlds.

 

[Slick]

I live in Norfolk....although I do harbour dreams of one day actually riding up an actual hill.....apparently there are even things called "mowntinns" in other far away places!

Funny you say that, but I was just complaining to my training partner about the sheer amount of hills on his chosen routes. I thought he had seen the light when he offered to change the route yesterday, to which I quickly agreed. I couldn't believe it when he took me up a fekin Mountain.

 

[S-Express]

Anyone who says a 53/39 is faster - is kind of missing the point. Anyway..

If you opt for a compact double chainset, you have the option of switching to 53/39 rings or any combination in between, without changing cranks. If you opt for a standard double, you can switch to a 50t chainring, but 39 will be the lowest you can go on the inner.

 

[cosmicbike]

I have yet to run out of gears on my 50-34 compact with a 28-11 cassette in terms of speed, I was still spinning at 39.6mph which is plenty fast enough. On the other hand, sometimes I wish I'd fitted a 30 or 32 cassette..

 

[Smokin Joe]

With 11t sprockets now being the norm only pros or elite riders need a 53t chainring.

 

[mattobrien]

I have bikes with a compact, a semi compact and a double. I find that the cassette makes as much difference as anything else, as my compact has an 11-25, whereas my semi compact has 11-28, so is a little easier up the hills if needed.
I have just ordered a bike with a semi compact, seems the best of both worlds and should make for (slightly) closer gearing that a double.

I cycle in the hilly badlands of Suffolk. Not quite as flat as Norfolk, but not much gradient anywhere.

 

[T4tomo]

I live in Norfolk....although I do harbour dreams of one day actually riding up an actual hill.....apparently there are even things called "mowntinns" in other far away places!

Makes very little difference if you only ride in Norfolk then as there are no hills. But I would still say compact foe when you holiday in Yorkshire or the Alps

 

[Sharky]

Apart from the high/low extremes which will be different. Also consider where your normal riding ratios are. Can be fruststrating if bang in the middle caught between the big and small rings.