Swapping Campag Chainrings - 53/39 to 50/34

Craggers

Hi all,

I'm running a 53/39 Veloce PT chainset and am wondering if it's possible to just swap out the chainrings to 50/34 for hillier rides (i'll also be changing the cassette from an 11-25 to a 13-29). According to the Campag instructions I wont have a problem with the capacity of the mechs but just want to see if just swapping out the chainrings will pose any problems. Really don't want to fork out for a compact chain set just for the hilly stuff I don't do very often.

Thanks in advance
Craig

Wirral_paul

Cant be done i'm afraid - the BCD (bolt circle diameter) is different - 135mm standard, 110mm compact. The small inner ring simply cant physically fit onto a standard crank due to its small diameter.

gds08

You can fit a 50t outer ring with no problems but I think that 38t is the smallest inner ring you will fit to a 'standard' 135mm BCD chainset but these are virtually impossible to find and would gain you very little anyway.

I'd be interested to know what kind of 'hillier rides' you'll be doing as the gearing you are thinking of changing to is extremely low ratios. I obviously don't know what level of fitness you have or how good your hill climbing is but for 99% of climbs you will encounter in this country you should have a low enough gear with the 13-29 cassette teamed with the 39t inner ring.

If you really want to go for a 'Compact' chainset maybe worth trying on here to see if anybody has one to swap with your standard one. Bear in mind that the bearing cups are very slightly different so you would need to include those as well.

Graham

rolf_f

gds08 wrote:

I'd be interested to know what kind of 'hillier rides' you'll be doing as the gearing you are thinking of changing to is extremely low ratios. I obviously don't know what level of fitness you have or how good your hill climbing is but for 99% of climbs you will encounter in this country you should have a low enough gear with the 13-29 cassette teamed with the 39t inner ring.

You should try living in eg Yorkshire for a bit. There are loads of hills were 34-29 is a good call - particularly as there are loads of them close together. Once a ride gets over 10000 feet in climbing, 29 starts seeming a sensible minimum rather than overkill!

That said, I'd probably take the pain or walk if it was only an occasional need.