I had a FSA Gossamer compact on my road bike for a time and was not at all impressed with how it shifted. I now have a 6600 and it is night and day compared to the Gossamer.
DrDre - have FSA compact cranks on both my bikes - Litespeed and a Seven - no complaints or issues at all.
Dre, I have had FSA carbon compacts on my R2.5 since I bought it in '05 with no issues and recently put a pair on my S2 again without issue.
I should add that I am using them with Campag Chorus and have heard they don’t pair so well with Shimano. Which do you run?
K Force Light Compact for 1 yr, no problems.
FSA Carbon Pro compact for years with no problems. I did once have a mechanic tell me it shifts better with a Campy chain, but I was unable to tell the difference. It has always been smooth for me.
Limited experience with SRAM, but shimano really does shift better (front shifting for shimano is hands down the best compared to anything out there).
If you already have shimano parts on the rest of your bike, I’d go with a shimano compact crank, either the 6650 or the R700. Just so things match up. They can be bought on ebay for <$150 if you wait around…
I’ve run FSA K-force compact and K-force light compact cranks. The original K-force were not good. I’ve got about 3000 miles on the K-force lights and they’re fine.
I’ve also used SRAM Rival standard, Force compact, Red standard and D/A 7800 (standard) cranks on bikes in the last 3 years. No issues with the SRAM products. Shifting feels crisper than FSA. The D/A’s were far superior, both in stiffness and shifting.
Unles you just love the FSA’s, I’d consider the D/A 7900 compacts or the Ultegra 6700 compacts.
FSA K Froce light on two bikes - no compliants, no shifting issues.
I am on my second set of chainrings on my FSA’s compacts (road bike). With over 6000 miles on them I can say they are good - not great. I have Shimano’s on my other bikes…which I like a little better…but not enough to upgrade/switch them out. Good luck.
Early models of the external bearings version had issues with the crank arms not staying tight. You can read the entries on roadbikereview.com if you really care. This issue wasn’t just for compacts but also standards.
I’ve been using the older ISIS versions for 6 years over 15-20K miles. I’ve had issues with bearings going bad (rough, contaminated, clunking) in moderate amounts of time (1-2K miles). They are inexpensive thankfully. They do make a Mega-Quad version now and the seals are reported to be better. I’ve been using RaceFace and Stronglight recently.
FSA K-force compact lights ceramic on one bike and K- force on the other. I did put AQ rotors on no problems what so ever.
My experience has been that the FSA chainrings do not shift as well as Shimano or Campy. I’ve never used SRAM. Shimano’s rings are the best shifting by a wide margin, in my experience.