What makes a crankset compact

Compacts can provide a wider gear range , especially at the low end. The comparison could be done in terms of gear inches or ratios, but most people find it easier to relate to speed.

Compact setups can have fewer redundant gears compared to standards. Looking at the graph above, you can see that there is less overlap in the ranges covered by the big and small chainrings. Compacts can improve chainline resulting in improved drivetrain efficiency. Chain drives are very efficient provided the chain runs in a fairly straight line. Perfect chainline occurs when the chainring and rear sprocket are in the same plane.

The more crooked the path of the chain, the greater the power-sapping frictional losses and wear on drivetrain parts. For this reason, you should avoid certain gearing combinations: big chainring to biggest rear sprocket and small chainring to smaller rear sprockets.

From my own experience and from observing other cyclists, people who are overgeared on standard cranks i. Related to the previous point, a compact allows you to tackle more terrain in your big chainring meaning less front shifting.

This produces less wear on the chainrings, chain and front derailleur. There is also less risk of dropping your chain. An added bonus is that frictional losses are minimized in the big ring because the chain makes a wider radius bend than in the small ring. Compacts are more versatile due to more chainring options. The smallest chainring compatible with standard cranksets is a 38, while compacts can go as low as At the other end of the spectrum, compact chainrings are commonly available in 53 and can be as monstrous as 56 teeth!

So you can effectively turn your compact into a standard if need be. Chainrings can be relatively inexpensive and swapping them only takes a few minutes. It can therefore be practical to have a selection of rings to choose from based on course conditions.

At least one study found that increasing cycling cadence benefited subsequent running performance. But the research is conflicting with other studies finding that a lower cadence benefits running or no relationship between cadence and running performance.

In summary, a higher cadence may improve your off-the-bike running and you should experiment to find out. Compacts are lighter due to the smaller spider, smaller chainrings, shorter chain and potentially smaller cassette. All of these factors could add up to a modest weight savings of grams or more. Compacts may facilitate shorter cranks. There has been a trend towards shorter crank arms among triathletes and time trialists, primarily to allow a lower and more aerodynamic position by opening the hip angle.

This, in turn, can lead to improved off-the-bike running. A standard chainset a bit of a strange term these days has a tooth or tooth outer chainring and a tooth inner chainring. Sometimes, though, pros will switch to larger chainrings for time trials or flat races like Paris-Roubaix.

The last bike we tested that came equipped with one was in , so we should probably stop calling it a standard crankset, because it isn't. Example bike Tifosi SS26 Aero. A compact chainset has a tooth outer chainring and a tooth inner chainring. For more details on that, see How much difference does a new chainset make? Compact chainsets have become massively popular because they allow you to keep moving up steep hills, albeit sometimes quite slowly, and many people prefer to turn smaller gears at a higher cadence the number of pedal revolutions per minute because it puts less stress on the knees.

The flip side is that you might run out of gears on very fast descents. Reflecting their popularity, the three largest groupset manufacturers offer compact chainsets across all of their road groupsets. A semi-compact chainset, sometimes called mid-compact or faux pro, has a tooth outer chainring and a tooth inner chainring. Semi-compact chainsets have become popular over the past few years because they offer something for most types of terrain.

Many of the road bikes we review here at road. Example bike Quintana Roo SRfive. Want lower gears? But we think they have a place for general riding too.

As soon as you hit seriously hilly terrain, there's going to come a moment when you need the lowest gear you can get. Example bike: Genesis CDA A triple chainset is one with three chainrings. Shimano offers triple chainsets for its three cheaper road bike groupsets — Claris, Sora and Tiagra.

In each case the chainrings are 50, 39, and tooth. That said, a triple can be a good idea, especially for something like a touring bike where you need those very small gears to climb while carrying a heavy load. Swapping from a double to a triple, or the reverse, is quite an expensive process because you need to change other groupset components too. The wide-range gearing offered by sub-compact chainsets means triples have almost vanished from road bikes.

We've seen two in the last couple of years, both on touring bikes. Example bike: Surly Disc Trucker. Recently, though, SRAM has introduced single chainring versions of three of its road groupsets — Force, Rival and Apex — with wide-range cassettes. SRAM also says that the interface between the chain and chainring is better because their specially designed chainrings have tall, square teeth edges that engage the chain earlier, and the traditional sharp and narrow tooth profile helps manage a deflected chain.

The 1x chainsets are available with a variety of different sized chainrings to suit the riding you do. Speaking of SRAM, they turned it up all the way to 12 a couple of years ago with the Red AXS eTap groupset, quickly followed by a Force version for those without amazingly deep pockets. People want lower gears but they want a tighter cassette at the back that offers arguably nicer shifting without the need for a long-cage rear mech.

Especially when climbing, sometimes there is a significant cadence pace variation once you shift to a harder or smoother cog. SRAM has launched a speed mountain bike groupset to overcome the problem of the gappy cassette, but in Bellin's opinion "a super compact is a good way to keep your speed gruppo but still climb long-distance mountains.

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