Bike with 53/39 chainring?

Lossie Loon
Lossie Loon Posts: 65
edited August 2012 in Road buying advice
Although I have a couple of road bikes, I am considering buying a new bike at the moment, probably in the £1000-£2000 price range. One of my current bikes has a 53/39 chainring, and the other has a 50/34 Compact - I prefer the former as I seem to get a higher speed on it for what feels like less effort.

But looking through bikes in the £1000-£2000 price range they almost always seem to have the 50/34 Compact set-up. Are there any brands I should be looking at in particular to get one with a 53/39 chainring?

Comments

  • Wirral_paul
    Wirral_paul Posts: 2,476
    Really? Do you spin out the 53/11 (or 12) gear then?? Choose the crankset based on what lowest gear you need would be my advice.
  • No, the other way round - I seem to spin out on the Compact more than on the 53/39.
  • flappy8
    flappy8 Posts: 172
    Focus do bikes with both compact and 53/39... And seem good value too
    MTB or Road - They are both good!
  • cougie
    cougie Posts: 22,512
    Build your own ?
  • Not sure I am technically minded enough to build my own with confidence! Will have a look a the Focus range though.

    My mistake on saying one of my bikes had a 53/39 chainring though - it is actually a 52/42.

    Part of the issue with the bike with the compact may be that the rear cassette only goes down to 12, perhaps my issue will be resolved with one that goes down to 11 instead.
  • snoopsmydogg
    snoopsmydogg Posts: 1,110
    with an 11 cassette and 50 chainring you will be faster at the same cadence than using a 52/12

    what sort of speeds are you topping out at? have you tried increasing you cadence or if you are already that fast tried contacting the pro teams :wink:
  • schweiz
    schweiz Posts: 1,644
    50x12 at 100 rpm is 52.2 km/h
    50x12 at 120 rpm is 62.6 km/h

    How often do you exceed those kinds of speed on the flat or slightly downhill?

    On steep hills where you do start to exceed 60 km/h it's usually better to stop pedaling and tuck to gain the aerodynamic benefits.

    There's very few people who'll genuinely 'spin out' at 50x12 i.e. they are still driving their highest gear at their maximum cadence and need a higher gear.

    If you are simply failing to drive the freehub at speeds below 50 km/h then you should work on developing your pedaling technique!
  • cougie
    cougie Posts: 22,512
    Theres plenty of places that will custom build you a bike with any chainring you want. Even a LBS would swap the chainsets over without fuss if thats what you want.

    Try Ribble or Planet X and their bike builder functions.

    Its the wrong way round to say - I need this chainring - what bikes have it.
  • Cheers for the advice - will probably go down the route of asking an LBS about swapping chainsets if I need to.

    As for speeds reached, I am generally talking about the 30mph/50kph and upwards range. I'm lucky because of one of the areas I live in (Moray) has a lot of really flat roads and often with very strong westerlies - which means I can get the speed up to over 30mph on the flat over several miles (peaking at around 40mph if a slight decline in the gradient). The bike with the 52/42 chainring copes a lot better with that.

    That's not a c*ckwave by any means - it is entirely helped by favourable conditions in terms of wind direction/speed and road flatness. My average over all terrains and distances is a far more modest 17.5mph (with a range from about 16.5 to 19.5mph for each ride), so no need for 'pro-team' remarks as I know my place on the pecking order and it is not that high.

    I just find my 52/42 bike to have a better range of gears to suit my own needs than the 50/34 on the other bike, both in terms of not spinning out at high speeds and I don't use the bottom few gears at all on the 50/34. Because of that I considered getting a bike with a 53/39 set-up, but almost all bikes seem to be 50/34 from browsing around in the £1000-£2000 price range I was looking at. Hence my query.
  • ben16v
    ben16v Posts: 296
    dont forget you can easliy change rings on the compact upto a 53 on the 110bcd spider
    i need more bikes
  • ben16v
    ben16v Posts: 296
    oh and canyon will do either compact or standard chainsets too
    i need more bikes
  • ben16v wrote:
    oh and canyon will do either compact or standard chainsets too

    Cheers, Canyon do look a good bet - nice bikes - although their stock on their website seems to be a bit limited with regards to availability!
  • Monty Dog
    Monty Dog Posts: 20,614
    You might be able to ride 50kph with a tailwind, but you've still got to come back the other way! I race on 50x34 with an 11-23 cassette and can reach 60kph plus drafting / in a pack. It's a common preconception that bigger chainrings are needed to make you faster when more often than not the rider needs to develop a higher cadence.
    Make mine an Italian, with Campagnolo on the side..
  • I'll hold off buying a new bike for now, but will continue to monitor how I feel on the two bikes I do have. It was just that I find the range of gears on the 52/42 chainring bike more comfortable and suitable, than on the 50/34 chainring bike - I noted that I seemed to be able to go faster on the 52/42 plus don't use the wee gears on the 50/34 at all (but then I don't really cycle anywhere really hilly - my hilliest route is 83ft/mile, so falls short of the 100ft/mile I see quoted for hilly rides).

    Despite the two bikes being a similar weight, I get faster averages on the 52/42 - but then that may be partly due to psychological reasons (I "think" the bike is faster, therefore I make the bike faster!) or individual technique/preference (I seem to prefer lower cadence/harder pushing cycling).