Switching to 50/34 on roadie, will it mess with 53/39 TT training?

Triathlon Forum
1

I am thinking about switching out my R3 to a compact set for a better climbing setup. Will it affect me at all if I then ride my TT bike and it being a standard 53/39 setup? I like being able to ride either bike and have it feel fairly consistent with knowing when to shift on certain hills but want to have better gearing options on the roadie. Please let me know what your experience is!

2

I have a compact D/A crank (170mm) a compact R700 crank (172.5mm) a 54/42 TT crank (170) and a Standard 53/39 D/A crank (172.5) and I switch them all between my road and tri bike depending on the course without any problem.

3

its just gears

except for when you are going very very fast or very very slow you will be in the same total gear ratio anyway.

4

Possibly, but not much. I wouldn’t worry about it.

5

no
.

6

nope. I have compacts on two road bikes and standard on my TT bike and it’s no big deal going back and forth.

7

Completely. You will likely be 1-2 mph slower.

In reality, you can be geared worse with a compact setup than a traditional setup. Which setup will give you more variety: 53/39 with a 11-28 or 50/34 with a 12-23? Compact up front doesn’t mean squat without knowing what’s on the back end.

8

I can put an 11-23 or 11-25 cassette on my roadie. I am going to get a compact and try it out, I have a feeling that I will end up enjoying it more than a standard and may move my TT rig over to a compact as well, was hoping I could use my standard setup as motivation to get strong enough to use it but not sure if that is working for me.

9

I basically did what you are saying. I went to a compact on my road bike and left the regular setup on the TT bike. I love riding my road bike with the 50-34 and not killing myself everyday in our mountains around here. Well, I said the hell with the 53-39 Qrings on the TT bike and just installed a set of compact Qrings on the TT bike. I"m about over wishing for more 1 - 2 easier gears. I installed 50-36 on the TT bike.

Now all that siad, I can easily reinstall the 53-39 when I think I could use them since my cranks will take both compacts and regular rings. Its a really nice benefit of the ZED crankset.

10

its just gears

x2.
Variety is the spice of life.