How many of you that race use these. Are they on your race bike? Do most of your rides require a compact crank ? Why is it better than a 172.5 crank with a 53-39 in front and a 12-26 in back? I just never got the compact crank thing and want to know the reasons.
When using a 50 (vs. 53) shifting cogs has a less dramatic change. This allows for more subtle increments and decrements in gain ratios so you can more precisely match your effort and cadence to the race conditions (terrain, wind, etc.).
I run std. on my road bike but compact on the tri bike and race in hilly and pancake flat areas. In the rare event that I spin out on the compact I’m already going 40mph so I’ll just soft pedal and enjoy the break until the next hill.
Plus, a 50-11 is a bigger ratio than 53-12 so you would spin out the latter before the former.
For me I get more use out of all my gears. With regular cranks I NEVER get any use out of big ring/12 and the small ring/25 wasn’t always the best to get me up hills. The other thing that bugged me was on regular rides I would be forced to switch between big and small ring fairly often. With compact, I have a better selection of gears to climb with, I can still go as fast as ever and there’s less moving from big to small ring. I climb in the small ring and on the flats I’m always in the big ring.
If I was a much stronger cyclist it might be a different story but as it is compact is right for me.
I still use a 12-25 cassette to train but depending on the race I often use an 11-23.
I have a standard 53/39 and 12-25 on my tri bike, but I am seriously thinking of splurging for the DA 7950 50/34 and 11-28. There are a number of hilly tris out there, and the 34-28 combo would do wonders for the really steep hills, plus, as mentioned, 50-11 is a higher combo than 53-12, so I would not be spinning out too much at top speed.
I was considering using my road bike (which has a triple front ring) for the Auburn tri, but then I realized I got the tri bike for the specific purpose of going faster in tris, why not make it usable for all kinds of tris, flat or hilly?
With regular cranks, I find myself switching too often between the big ring and the small ring and I find that on tough climbs I have to push too hard in the easiest gear. With compacts, I get to stay in the big ring a lot more and have easier climbing gears.