Have a question for the wrenches out there. I have a Giant OCR1 that I bought off of Craiglist when I first got into triathlon. Once I found out I enjoyed the sport I bought a tri bike and have used it for my primary ride. I want to start doing some group rides now that I’m in the off season though and its time for a new chain, front chain rings, rear cassette. That being said, I would like to switch to a double chainset up front, will I need to buy a new crankset or will it be fine to just replace the chain rings and leave the small cog off? I realize that I will need to change the derailleurs, brake/shifters, just curious if I can keep the cranks.
If you want you can buy new CR, but be sure they are the correct bolt center sze for your triple. Then you can adjust the front derailleur so it doesn’t shift into the non existant 3rd ring. You don’t need any other parts.
i have a road bike with 52-40-28 chainring, and once just took the 28 off and the bike worked fine with no other changes. shifting was still good. however, my legs really missed the 28 so it went back on pretty in a couple of weeks. that bike has a mix of components. other systems may not be the same.
caveat - i am a leading candidate for world’s worst bike mechanic.
Have a question for the wrenches out there. I have a Giant OCR1 that I bought off of Craiglist when I first got into triathlon. Once I found out I enjoyed the sport I bought a tri bike and have used it for my primary ride. I want to start doing some group rides now that I’m in the off season though and its time for a new chain, front chain rings, rear cassette. That being said, I would like to switch to a double chainset up front, will I need to buy a new crankset or will it be fine to just replace the chain rings and leave the small cog off? I realize that I will need to change the derailleurs, brake/shifters, just curious if I can keep the cranks.
actually you don’t need to change anything on the bike. just take the small chainring off. just adjust the upper and lower limit of your front derailleur and you’re set. no need to change either of the derailleurs or the brifters going from triple to double. just make sure you get chainrings with the same BCD. if i was you, however, i wouldn’t adjust the cable any. i would click the front shifter to the setting for the largest chainring and set the derailleur at that point.
ex. the shifter has 3 indexed settings. 1-small ring; 2-middle ring; 3-large ring;
click the shifter over to the 3rd setting. align it on the large chainring. this way when put the shifter in the 2nd setting your derailleur is on the middle ring.when it is in the 1st setting it is still on the middle ring, but there is play in the cable now.
the reason i would do it this way instead of (1st setting:middle ring 2nd setting:large ring 3rd setting: nothing) is it will keep you from accidently shifting into the 3rd setting on the shifter. shifting the shifter past the derailleur’s limit increases tension in the cable too much and can cause it to snap or more likely damage your shifter. doing it the way i mentioned none of this can happen.
Why?
If you simply adjust the inner ring out you don’t get any of the “weight” benefits of a true double drive train and you lose you inner ring. It’s a lose/lose in my book. My current road bike has a triple because that’s what the shop had and it would have cost me more to get the double (special order vs floor inventory cleaning). If you are afraid of comments from the group riders, just get to the front and ride away. From my experience it quiets them down quickly. Plus with a triple you can pretty much climb a vertical wall with minimal effort. Just my $0.02
Good luck whatever you decide.