Someone touched on this earlier, but I think it deserves a thread of its own.
On Thursday we learned the delivery of Shimano Dura-Ace cranks equipped with 54 and 55 tooth chainrings would be delayed “until june” according to a telephone call with Shimano customer service.
We immediately went to “plan B” and phoned our friends at FSA to fire up some Carbon Pro Team Issue cranks with the cool lenticular TT chinrings. They are available in 54,55,56 and 44 and 42 for the small rings.
The guys at FSA were candid enough to tell us they have been having problems with these chainrings shifting on Dura-Ace 10 speed drivetrains and that the sponsored teams in Europe were having difficulties with them on 10 speed.
That got me to wondering abou the compact chainrings too.
We have had excellent results with the TT chainrings on 9 speed bikes, but no expereince (so far) on 10 speed. The lack of 54 and 55 tooth chainrings is one reason I switched to a 700c bike from 650c for IMNZ. I couldn’t get big enough gearing. In retrospect, it was an excellent decision given the powerful tailwind out to the turnaround point and the roughish pavement.
Any experiences with the 54 and 55 tooth FSA rings on 10 speed DA?
Tom, I had a thread on this a while ago. I had some concerns and contacted FSA. I posted their response, the bottom line of which was that their cranks were 10 speed compatible. I didn’t ask about the large chain rings. It seems a bit odd to put a 55 or so tooth chain ring on a crank with 110 spacing. If you want big rings, one would think you would go for the 130 spacing.
Oh, ajfranke, that is what I meant- 55 or 54 tooth on 130mm.
I hope people didn’t misinterpret that. I was questionsing the 50 tooth compact rings by association.
If FSA told you a few weeks ago the 54 and 55 tooth rings ARE 10 speed compatible, but told me on Thrusday they “Aren’t” and they “Were originally intended to be, but now we are having problems with them and we’re telling people they aren’t” (that’s exactly what they told me Thursday).
-That being the case, I am concerned. About both- the 50 tooth on the 110 and the 54,55 and 56 on the 130 and 135.
But you are right, I never intened to imply using a 54 tooth on a 110 pattern. That, indeed, would be nonsensical as you pointed out. Thank you sir.
I’ve been putting them in my lathe and cutting another .010 off the outside of the chain ring teeth face. That has seemed to help let the chain lay in the teeth better and the chain seems to fall over a little quicker on shifting. I just returned from the Taipae bike show where the complete lack of Shimano was the only topic of discussion. Something seems to weird about this unless fishing reel sales are so good they had to divert all production to that.
I wouldn’t hate you if you gave insight on the aero numbers and the shifting/ride quality of them. I know that Stronglight supplies the French team Brioches la Boulangere (sp?) with their crankset/rings, I wonder if they’ll use them on the TT bikes?
I have been running the compacts on my Campy 10 bike for some time now. They shift fine - maybe slightly slower going from 34-50 than it was going from 39-52, but it’s not that big a deal for me. Took a little time to get dialed in, though.