Here is a little guide to the possibility of setting up a retro compact with wide range gears. The first bit attempts to justify doing so. Skip to the end for practical suggestions on how to do it: the short story is that Suntour and Campagnolo both made cranksets with useful small BCDs. If you are lucky or determined, you can find them.
1) WHY A RETRO COMPACT?
Like most people on here, I tend to prefer the look of classic cranksets - their slim lines and elegant curves are much more appealing than, say, a modern Ultegra, which looks like something you'd find in the Terminator's jockstrap.
The downside is the somewhat unforgiving gear ratios: 42 teeth small ring on a Nuovo Record, for example. Not much fun unless you're properly rock hard like Sean Kelly or Roger de Vlaeminck.
A 52 big ring has never seemed all that useful to me either: round by me, there are lots of dips and valleys. That gives three choices - none of them very attractive: go razzing down in 52-13 then lock up (and even fall off) when you get half way up the other side; try to shift all the way across your range in one go; or spin out on the descent.
I don't find triples all that appealing either: rubbing chains, lugging a granny gear round that you barely use, needing a long cage rear derailleur (when most vintage ones except Suntour were a bit crap), etc etc.
The only option seemed to be fitting a more modern compact with 110 bcd, something like Stronglight's Impact. But it just seems a bit wrong. Bad boy, dirty boy, in your bed!
All is not lost though. Turns out that some of the main manfucacturers did dabble in something akin to 'compact' cranksets with small BCDs. Here are some general thoughts on how to set them up, and what's available, based on some rather obsessive research and fettling.
2) SETUP
'Compacts' let you keep your short cage rear derailleur. Cleaner shifting, close range freewheel or cassette. What's not to like?
Of course, you are limited by the capacity of your derailleur. Around 24-26 teeth seems standard for a short cage. With a 13-25 at the back, you've got a maximum of 14 teeth difference in chainrings to play with at the front. With a 13-28. you've got just 11 teeth difference. As I mentioned, I am quite willing to sacrifice a few teeth off the big ring to get lower gearing. In any case, you need to bear these limitations in mind if you want to keep your nice pretty short cage, and not have to resort to some horrible long cage monstrosity dragging along the ground and drooling behind you.
3) MANUFACTURERS
Like I say, some manufcaturers seemed to indavertently hit upon 'compact' chainsets, event though they never bothered to market them or directly explore the technical possibilities. One Belgian writer said his dad used to sneer 'What's wrong with you, you puff, 42-25 is enough to get you up anything'. When men were men. Anyway, here's what's on offer:
STRONGLIGHT/TA: Masters in actually providing gearing that was useful to mere mortals. Tiny BCD means you can go as low as 28 teeth small ring. Downsides are their annoying crank pullers, not compatible with anyone else's, and difficuly finding chainrings to fit classic models like the 49D.
SHIMANO: 1970s Dura Ace and Arabesque both went as low as 39 teeth, which later became standard of course. 130mm BCD chainrings still easy to find. Very pretty chainrings. Gearing still a bit hardman though.
SUNTOUR: Produced the mysterious VX crankset with 110 BCD! That gives the option of modern compact ratios, like 34-50! Not sure what inspired the small BCD. Are quite attractive, look a bit like vintage Dura Ace. The cranksets were used on vintage BMXs (possibly because of that BCD), and are not easy to find. Will probably get even harder to find when the hipsters move on from fixies and (increasingly) vintage racing bikes to vintage BMX - which I am sure they will. Tossers.
CAMPAGNOLO: The champions of only making stuff aimed at serious racing cyclists or wannabees (and almost wilfully cocking up any attempt to move out of this market).
However, their not-very-well-loved mid-low end groupsets offer some interesting possibilities. Nuovo Gran Sport, Victory and Triomphe all had 116 BCD (confusingly, NGS had a double in both 116 and 144 BCD. No idea why). And you can even keep your full Campag setup - not that I'm a Campagnazi, mind. Do what works.
That alows for a small ring as small as 35 teeth. Very handy. Campag even seemed to make rings that small, though I've never actually found any.
Fortunately, Miche do still make 116 BCD rings for their junior 'Young' crankset, as small as 35 teeth and one-tooth increments up to 48 teeth. Not that hard to find them new if you're determined enough.
The NGS, Victory and Triomphe crankests all seem pretty enough to me, it was mainly the derailleurs that let them down ('Gaah, it looks like a cheap and nasty copy of a Nuovo Record'. 'Erm, that's because it is').
Anyway, there you go. It's quite possible to find authentic period correct cranksets that you can use to give useful low gears and that let you keep a short cage derailleur. Hope that's useful to somebody.
Cheers,
Johnny
1) WHY A RETRO COMPACT?
Like most people on here, I tend to prefer the look of classic cranksets - their slim lines and elegant curves are much more appealing than, say, a modern Ultegra, which looks like something you'd find in the Terminator's jockstrap.
The downside is the somewhat unforgiving gear ratios: 42 teeth small ring on a Nuovo Record, for example. Not much fun unless you're properly rock hard like Sean Kelly or Roger de Vlaeminck.
A 52 big ring has never seemed all that useful to me either: round by me, there are lots of dips and valleys. That gives three choices - none of them very attractive: go razzing down in 52-13 then lock up (and even fall off) when you get half way up the other side; try to shift all the way across your range in one go; or spin out on the descent.
I don't find triples all that appealing either: rubbing chains, lugging a granny gear round that you barely use, needing a long cage rear derailleur (when most vintage ones except Suntour were a bit crap), etc etc.
The only option seemed to be fitting a more modern compact with 110 bcd, something like Stronglight's Impact. But it just seems a bit wrong. Bad boy, dirty boy, in your bed!
All is not lost though. Turns out that some of the main manfucacturers did dabble in something akin to 'compact' cranksets with small BCDs. Here are some general thoughts on how to set them up, and what's available, based on some rather obsessive research and fettling.
2) SETUP
'Compacts' let you keep your short cage rear derailleur. Cleaner shifting, close range freewheel or cassette. What's not to like?
Of course, you are limited by the capacity of your derailleur. Around 24-26 teeth seems standard for a short cage. With a 13-25 at the back, you've got a maximum of 14 teeth difference in chainrings to play with at the front. With a 13-28. you've got just 11 teeth difference. As I mentioned, I am quite willing to sacrifice a few teeth off the big ring to get lower gearing. In any case, you need to bear these limitations in mind if you want to keep your nice pretty short cage, and not have to resort to some horrible long cage monstrosity dragging along the ground and drooling behind you.
3) MANUFACTURERS
Like I say, some manufcaturers seemed to indavertently hit upon 'compact' chainsets, event though they never bothered to market them or directly explore the technical possibilities. One Belgian writer said his dad used to sneer 'What's wrong with you, you puff, 42-25 is enough to get you up anything'. When men were men. Anyway, here's what's on offer:
STRONGLIGHT/TA: Masters in actually providing gearing that was useful to mere mortals. Tiny BCD means you can go as low as 28 teeth small ring. Downsides are their annoying crank pullers, not compatible with anyone else's, and difficuly finding chainrings to fit classic models like the 49D.
SHIMANO: 1970s Dura Ace and Arabesque both went as low as 39 teeth, which later became standard of course. 130mm BCD chainrings still easy to find. Very pretty chainrings. Gearing still a bit hardman though.
SUNTOUR: Produced the mysterious VX crankset with 110 BCD! That gives the option of modern compact ratios, like 34-50! Not sure what inspired the small BCD. Are quite attractive, look a bit like vintage Dura Ace. The cranksets were used on vintage BMXs (possibly because of that BCD), and are not easy to find. Will probably get even harder to find when the hipsters move on from fixies and (increasingly) vintage racing bikes to vintage BMX - which I am sure they will. Tossers.
CAMPAGNOLO: The champions of only making stuff aimed at serious racing cyclists or wannabees (and almost wilfully cocking up any attempt to move out of this market).
However, their not-very-well-loved mid-low end groupsets offer some interesting possibilities. Nuovo Gran Sport, Victory and Triomphe all had 116 BCD (confusingly, NGS had a double in both 116 and 144 BCD. No idea why). And you can even keep your full Campag setup - not that I'm a Campagnazi, mind. Do what works.
That alows for a small ring as small as 35 teeth. Very handy. Campag even seemed to make rings that small, though I've never actually found any.
Fortunately, Miche do still make 116 BCD rings for their junior 'Young' crankset, as small as 35 teeth and one-tooth increments up to 48 teeth. Not that hard to find them new if you're determined enough.
The NGS, Victory and Triomphe crankests all seem pretty enough to me, it was mainly the derailleurs that let them down ('Gaah, it looks like a cheap and nasty copy of a Nuovo Record'. 'Erm, that's because it is').
Anyway, there you go. It's quite possible to find authentic period correct cranksets that you can use to give useful low gears and that let you keep a short cage derailleur. Hope that's useful to somebody.
Cheers,
Johnny
