50,34 to 52,36 do I need a longer chain

gubber12345

As the heading says if I change my crankset from 50-34 to 52-36 will I need to lengthen my chain.been thinking of doing this on my spare bike for a while and would like to know if its just as simple as crankset and longer chain.wanting to do this as the club I recently joined do some good flattish runs and as I have a compact this would give me another option on these type of runs.

Any thoughts guys?

sungod

depends on whether the old chain was short enough to put the rear mech on the limit when cross chaining on the 50

also on whether you're absolutely sure you won't cross chain when on the 52

gubber12345

I try not to cross chain sungod, usually just go up a few gears on the rear cassette and drop to the small ring on front, but have to say cross chaining has happened before lol so cant be totally ruled out.

As an add on question how many links would I need to add on? I'm thinking possibly 2 to cover the extra 2 teeth on each cog but this is just a total guess on my behalf!!!

rolf_f

Put it into big big now and see how much slack is left in the rear mech.

If it is close, remember that big big isn't enough on its own - you still need a little more chain length for the chain to be lifted over the teeth of the big chainring without everything getting horribly jammed up.

If it looks tight you probably only need to add a single pair but I'd add two as you can always split additional bit back to one pair if it looks too long.

gubber12345

Rolf F wrote:

Put it into big big now and see how much slack is left in the rear mech.

If it is close, remember that big big isn't enough on its own - you still need a little more chain length for the chain to be lifted over the teeth of the big chainring without everything getting horribly jammed up.

If it looks tight you probably only need to add a single pair but I'd add two as you can always split additional bit back to one pair if it looks too long.

Thanks rolf