perfect ger range is it possible

ollychristian

hello, i currently ride a salsa fargo (heafty steel) for touring and have 10 speed road shifters, xt double front mech,
xt 9 speed rear mech. 10 speed cassette 11-36 and fsa commet chainset 42/27

so highest gear 42-11 and lowest 27-36. and this works well on my bike when both loaded and unloaded.

but i'm dreaming of on one dirty disco carbon light beauty for mmy bikepacking/winter/every occasion bike.
just a bit concerned though that current chainset would not give me enough high gears on unloaded much lighter bike. and road compact would not be low enough for loaded up on the hills.


so question (thanks for your patience) is...
can i get a chainset that is 46/30?
or is there a chainset that is more costomizable than others?

or am i dreaming of the impossible?

andrewleck

Get a triple. I ran a 48/38/22 with a 11~34 cassette when fully loaded (40kg + inc bike) on the tourer in the alps which was way more than I needed.

Light bike (7kg) is running 52/39/30 and 11~28 which is also ample both up and down in the alps. :twisted:

mercia_man

There is a 46/30 chainset marketed by Velo Orange. I think it must be an American company. I saw one for sale on ebay recently from a South Wales seller for £65. It's an ordinary square taper triple chainset with the outer ring's teeth smoothed off to act as a chainguard - so you only use the middle and inner rings. In fact, you could adapt any triple chainset in this way, buying Stronglight or TA inner and middle rings to suit your needs. Spa Cycles sell Stronglight chainguards to replace triple outer rings for a tenner. You'd also need a bottom bracket to fit.

Alternatively, Spa Cycles sell their XD2 double chainset with custom TA rings for £87. Outer rings come in 54-40 and inners 46-33, according to their website. So you could make up a 46/33 chainset or 48/33 if you wanted an even higher top gear. It would need a Stronglight JP400 JIS 107mm bottom bracket, costing £10 to £16 depending on the material of the cups.

I've just noticed you can buy 44/30 Shimano XTR chainsets but they cost a fortune.

I'm not sure whether you mean to transfer the components from your old bike to your new bike. If so, going the double route would be by far the cheapest and easiest. But if you're planning on having new components for the new bike, a full triple gear system would I think be the way to go for a really wide range. Again, Spa Cycles have a massive range of good value options for custom ring triple chainsets.