Kinesis Athein Evo Frame Set ?

Mostyn
Mostyn Posts: 30
edited February 2019 in Workshop
Hi All,
I'm thinking of buying a Kinesis Athein Evo Frame Set; they get excellent reviews; but, I read that the front mech position will only accommodate a 52/36 chain set; and I wanted to use a compact 50/34 C/Set on the frame.
Does anyone know if this is correct or can a 50/34 be used on the frame? I cannot find anything about it on the Kinesis Web-site.

Comments

  • i.bhamra
    i.bhamra Posts: 304
    Hi,

    I've built up one of these recently for my Mrs. You are correct that the braze-on mount is too high to accommodate a compact. I considered filing the mounting hole down a little so I could get the mech a little lower but decided I'd require taking out a bit too much material - might work though.

    I ended up fitting a 52/36 with a GS rear mech (used a full R8000 groupset) and an 11-34 cassette. It works fine, the jumps between gears are a little big for my liking and it feels a bit wrong to me having to run an 11-34 cassettes with a 52/36 chainset but I'm seeing more and more bikes with a similar set up so maybe it's just me who finds it a little objectionable.

    The failure to accommodate a compact does seem like a bit of an oversight to me. As I say though, it works fine, and it's a nice frame that has built up into a really nice bike. The first generation bike (I still have one) could "just" accept a compact and was lighter and had much sharper handling and was in my opinion a better bike - just couldn't accept tyres wider than ~25mm or riders weighing north of 85kg if I remember correctly.

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