180mm Compact Chainset advice please

moreearsthangears

I'd like to buy a 180mm Compact chainset. Campag only does std size in 180mm, what other options are there? My groupset is 08 Chorus, so carbon would be nice.

Simon

maddog 2

at the risk of upsetting the Campag fashionistas....

Dura Ace do a 180mm compact, although it's not out yet

http://www.parker-international.co.uk/P ... e94c477bd2

Steve928

I share your frustration.

The only 180mm compact I've ever managed to lay my hands on has been a SRAM Rival in alloy - they were imported in 180mm 50/34 and 50/36, but I think they're all gone now. Porky at 880gr. anyway.

moreearsthangears

Forgot to say, preferably not shimano.

synchronicity

Zipp Vuma Quad?
Truvativ Rouleur Carbon?

moreearsthangears

£700 for a Vuma Quad?! F my old boots! you could buy a bike for that!

Truvativ Roleur not easy to find in 180mm

Curse my athletic gargantuan frame. Still, it's great being tall at football matches....

DavidBelcher

moreearsthangears wrote:

I'd like to buy a 180mm Compact chainset. Campag only does std size in 180mm, what other options are there? My groupset is 08 Chorus, so carbon would be nice.

Simon

TA do their Vega compact in 180mm; it'll be alloy not carbon, mind you. Likewise the Stronglight Z-Light ActivLink Compact which also comes in 180;

http://www.stronglight.com/stronglight/ ... tivlinkcpt

David

maddog 2

Vega is a flexy beast though (especially so in 180mm)

acorn_user

Sugino Longo would be nice. 140euro for the set. Nice and polished too, as cranks ought to be

Hugues

Faced exactly the same dilema myself a couple of years ago.

As a result I have the following combinations being used with Campag Record and Mirage groupsets:

- Truvative Rouleur (brushed alloy). Don't think they ever did a carbon Rouleur compact in 180mm, if they did then I never spotted it. There was a painted black (OEM ?) version of the Rouleur, but I never found a Compact/180mm version and IMHO the painted versions looked "cheap". Mine came with the chromed chainrings, which were a bit too bling for me and have since been replaced with regular SRAM Rival rings. At the time I bought it they were like the proverbial rocking horse dropping and it took 3+ months to get one in from the States and could never find another. Performs well with the Campag groupset, with a good/useable chainline.

Stronglight Z-Light Compact (brushed alloy), the ISIS BB not the ActivLink version (non AL a couple of years ago). Finish is good, but it chews up ISIS BB's and the chainline isn't great (could do with some spacers to push the chainrings "out" a bit) . This is now on the winter trainer.

SRAM Rival (basically a rebadged version of the Truvative Rouleur), picked one up earlier this year from Fisher Outdoor Leisure. Really good price (£76.99) including a GXP (English) BB. Currently using the BB and keeping the chainset as a spare

Got excited earlier in the year when I saw that there was going to be a SRAM RED Carbon 180mm Compact, but this appears to have been a printing error and the biggest they do is 177.5 mm

DavidBelcher

Hugues wrote:

Stronglight Z-Light Compact (brushed alloy), the ISIS BB not the ActivLink version (non AL a couple of years ago). Finish is good, but it chews up ISIS BB's and the chainline isn't great (could do with some spacers to push the chainrings "out" a bit) . This is now on the winter trainer.

The old square-taper version (Speedlight) had the same chain-line problem; apparently the trick is to place a Sturmey-Archer sprocket spacer ring between the frame and the R/H cup. These aren't easy to come by, but I have a couple in the shed - I'm keeping one as a 'just in case' part, but let me know if you need the other one, PM your address across, and I'll pop it in the post. It'll push the R/H crank about 2mm to the right (but also move the L/H one inboard by the same amount!); not much but better than nowt.

David