Went for a road ride with Chris on Saturday morning. We headed out to
Lincoln and then up Ridge Rd into Newcastle back down Taylor Rd then
English Colony to Sierra College. This was my first ride on the new
Truvativ compact cranks. I'm now running 50x36 up front and kept my 12-25 cassette in the back. So I now have one lower gear for climbing than I previously had. On the high end I lose a bit, but I am still only able to push a 50x12 on a slight decline so no biggie. Overall the changes feel very subtle. I feel on steeper sections I am able to spin a bit faster which is what I was after. Trying to mash heavy gears up hills is not good for me knee anyways. I did feel like I was able to stay in the big ring more often in the flats & rollers, and I also get more range out of my smaller ring before getting chain rub. The shifting from big to small ring & vise versa is more noticeable, but still seems to work pretty well. The installation was quite easy. Install new bottom bracket, install new cranks, lower front derailleur about 10mm, remove 2 chainlinks, and you're done. I'll post a followup review after I have a few more rides on them.
