is a 50/34 really that biazzare?!
PostieJohn
Posts: 1,105
Hi Mrs Postie here,
I have recently got myself a new bike yay!! Being not very good at hill climbs I have a 50/34 chainset. I thought this was a fairly standard size but when getting it serviced it has seemed to cause a bit of a storm in my LBS. There appears to be a feeling that it is an odd pairing of sizes? Are there many other 50/34 people out there? Or is my bike really a bit of a freak of nature? :?:
I have recently got myself a new bike yay!! Being not very good at hill climbs I have a 50/34 chainset. I thought this was a fairly standard size but when getting it serviced it has seemed to cause a bit of a storm in my LBS. There appears to be a feeling that it is an odd pairing of sizes? Are there many other 50/34 people out there? Or is my bike really a bit of a freak of nature? :?:
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No don't worry. Your LBS are weird or living in the dark ages.0
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It's a perfectly normal compact chainset used by all the greats.
Well. me at least.Fckin' Quintana … that creep can roll, man.0 -
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not bizarre at all
Your LBS has its head in the sand
The only issue might be that some gear ratios are duplicated (eg. 50-25 and 34-17) but it's hardly a cause for a storm....
Compacts come in three main combis: 50/34, 50/36 and 48/34. Take yer pick.Facts are meaningless, you can use facts to prove anything that's remotely true! - Homer0 -
Thanks everyone I thought it was the case and it does suit me on those hills, 0 -
I've regained control of the computer.
Mrs Postie has been a little harsh on Mark (@ LBS), because her 50 34 Shimano 105 grouping just hasn't run smoothly, for any length of time, since she got her Cannondale (from Evans, because she's short & they are the only people to stock 44cm frames). And we are only talking a few hundred miles.
All tweeking and blindly tightening & loosening stuff, (that's where I come in) only ever has short term effects.
Now Mrs Postie is saying it's ok if after she's changed up, if she then holds the level for a further 1/2 click.
I like Mark may be in the dark ages because is just doesn't look right, it's quite a sizable jump from small too large ring & there is already relatively deep gouges, from the chain, on the inside of the large ring.
Hopefully it's just very close to being spot-on and will come good.
P.S my main bike with Campag, is & always has been, baby-bottom smooth. 0 -
Same ring sizes as my Shimano FC700 - 50/34. I've never had a problem with the way my compact operates or looks with not a gouge to be be found on the rings, inside or out.
As for the jump between ring sizes - it only goes onto the small ring for hills so I tend to keep an eye on the Flightdeck at the start of the slope and freewheel until the cadence reads 80/85 and then start the legs again. Right or wrong it works for me and doesn't mean that spin the cranks at 115 going nowhere fast!0 -
I've got a 50/34 Campag on my bike and the only problem I see with it is that I tend to move up and up the gears until I'm in 34-12 then click up to 50-12 and stop dead...
I've just ordered a new rear block which is a 13-29 for the hills in North Wales - which should give me the same bottom gear as my wife's triple but without the weight and adustments annoyances.0 -
It must be a setup problem. I am running 50/34 and 12/27 on both my bikes and they are are sweet as you like. If she can move the lever a 1/2 click after changing up then I think the cable is a bit too tight and is only going to the 'trim' position. Go to the Shimano website and down load the data sheet for the gears. This will explain how it works and how to set it up.0
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I've got a 105 triple with Ultegra 9 spd reer and the LBS cannot set it up and haven't been able to since I got the bike. When I was at the Etape village I took the bike to Mavic to have the wheels trued and they also had a go, couldn't do it. So I took it to the Shimano stand, he took one look and told me I had a double derailleur and not a triple! He played with it and got it to work ok, but since getting back it's got worse again, Basically suffers from really bad chain rub which we can't adjust out.
I've ordered an Ultegra triple deraillear now.0 -
i am running a SRAM Force 50/34. I quite often (say 2 or 3 times in a 70k ride) the FD struggles when moving from small to big, sometimes dropping the chain completely.
From other peoples experience it sounds like this is a set up issue, however i have taken it to LBS twice and it it is still struggling
Would a 14T gap shift any better ???0 -
the jump in teeth is why i went for 50-36 on my new campag group...oh, and i didnt need a 34 8) it all depends on your power/weight ratio, where you're going to be riding, and the bike you have, but a 50-36 with an 11-25 at the back is a pretty nifty combo IMO ... it provides a bigger sprinting gear than 53x12 and a smaller climbing gear 39x27 ... i've even TT'd on it :shock: (giving the game away that I'm not that strong)
Yes, 50-36 does shift a bit better than 50-34, but my GF's bike has 50-34 and it's not bad at all despite being the cheapo £35 shimano compact ... the shimano compacts are a bit heavy but very nicely engineered IMO.0 -
when you say its not run smoothly, has it not run smoothly changing at the front or the rear, and is it ten or nine speed..??
50/34 is pretty much what all compact chainsets come as so its not an odd size or out of the ordinary.
On my road bike (9 speed) im running 50/34 & 11/21 not a problem at all with shifting front or rear.
On my cross bike (10 speed) same front with 12/28 rear shifting is awful. Ghost shifts, non shifts, Ive never in 15 years of building bikes had so much trouble setting up gearsdont knock on death\'s door.....
Ring the bell and leg it...that really pi**es him off....0 -
bigdawg wrote:
50/34 is pretty much what all compact chainsets come as so its not an odd size or out of the ordinary.
no, there are other sizes as stated above. 50-34 is the most common though and shouldn't be problematic ... though the front shifting will be less smooth than with a standard 14 tooth jump0 -
I ride 48/34 most of the time because the change from big to small rings is smoother and not so drastic in terms of gearing.OllyBianchi wrote:I've got a 50/34 Campag on my bike and the only problem I see with it is that I tend to move up and up the gears until I'm in 34-12 then click up to 50-12 and stop dead...
But in any case, I don't think going up all the gears on the small ring is a good way to ride. I only use the eight biggest sprocks at the back with the small ring, and only the eight smallest with the big ring. Littlest/littlest and biggest/biggest are pointless gearing combos.0 -
on mine, i have problems shifting up from small to big. It seems like the chain never quite makes it, unless i really push the gear lever. It seems to struggle more when i attempt to shift when in a higher tooth gear (i run 11-23) on the back
rear shifting is fine0 -
There seems to be a lot of badly set up compacts out there. If running to the limit of the rear mech (with Shimano this is a 50/34 with 12/27 on both 9sp and 10sp) them a bit of care is needed. Use the longest chain that will still have tension when on 34/12. Get the front mech lined up exactly as in the Shimano instruction sheet and set the stops and cables as on the sheet. If you get this right you should hardly need the 'trim' function to prevent chain rub at the extreme chainlines.
I am running Ultegra 10 with Sram Rival chainset and the change up is very positive. It has never :? yet thrown the chain off in either direction. The other bike has Ultegra 9sp with an old Stronglight chainset and a Sora 8sp front mech. This is not as sweet as the 10sp set up but works with no problem.
The secret is to set it up by the book.0 -
can anyone recommend a SRAM specialist round london ???........ :shock:0
