scott addict

aphill24

Hi guys, this is on behalf of a friend who has recently bought the scott addict 11 speed 2015 road bike. The groupset is not a compact but has 36 teeth on the front small chainring. Can the front chainring be swapped for a compact set up? ie. 52/39
will the derailleur need changing also? if not I would suppose he could go for a larger rear sprocket with 32 teeth to help get up the hills. the rear mech is a long one to allow this.

This is the downside to going to a shop such as tredz and being a new cyclist not knowing the difference. He is struggling big time on the hills with this set up

meanredspider

Bit of a confused post...

A typical "compact" chainset is 50/34 - your friend might have a semi or pro compact 52/36

If he's struggling with hills, a proper compact and a "shorter" cassette would help. You don't say what he currently has but 12-28 is typical for new 11-speed bikes.

aphill24

Hi Meanredspider, yes sorry i was wrong there. He has a 52/36 and is struggling on the hills big time. Can it be swapped for the compact set up 50/34 ?

aphill24

I suppose it would be cheaper to just change the rear sprocket as there doesn't seem much point spending £70 upwards on the front? The trouble is there are so many hills around here (s wales) he wants to do something

meanredspider

Well if it's hilly, get the compact chainset and put the semi compact on here or eBay - for some reason there's a fad to have these things so I'm pretty sure it would sell (especially if it's not much used). Then I'd go shorter on the cassette too - with the compact up front, you probably won't need to change the chain either.