Looking at the focus mares and its got 50/34 compact chainset whereas most of the others i've looked at have something like 46/36 rings. Is 50 tooth quite high for a cross bike then? I'll be using it for some road stuff as well so maybe a bigger ring will be fine, but was just trying to work out if i may need to change anything on it before i order one!

My CX bike has the 50/34 compact – it seemed to be pretty much standard when I bought mine a couple of years back. I find it fine for both CX racing and winter club riding/light touring.

46/36 seems very low for a 700c wheel. Which bikes were you looking at?

cannondale CX9 and kona Jake the snake are both 46/36 according to wheelbase website, and the other one i looked at the trek X0-1 is 46/38.

But i reckon the wiggle focus mares is the best deal around, even if i did have to change any chainrings / cassette to get an ideal gearing.

i found the 50/34 jump really annoying, changing at the front leading to frantic rear gear shifts to maintain a similar cadence, but the 34 meant climbing things was a breeze, i'd swap the 50 for something smaller if it was me

apart from that the Focus is a cracking bike

I believe that a typical 'cross double chainset for Euro racing is 48-38 or 46-38, or something very close to that. Although a lot of them use a single chainring anyway.

The 'norm' for a road compact is 50-34. I think a 50 is too big for proper 'cross riding where acceleration is more important than outright top speed, but a standard compact is probably a good compromise for a 'cross bike that is also to be used on the road.

I've changed the big ring on my new cx to 48, my old race bike was 46/38, but with big blocks now you can get away more.

When I'm racing 'cross I use the inner ring (36 on mine) for the whole race as I'm unfit. When I'm on the road I find the 46 spins out at about 35mph. When I get round to it I might put a 52-36 on, but to be honest unless you're a speed demon i'm not sure its worth it (for me anyway)

Slight hijack, for cross with a single ring, does anybody do a 38 or a 40 tooth ring?

the 34 meant climbing things was a breeze

What, like the Devil's Dyke Jo? 😉

i had a 39 for that, less of a breeze, more of a strong headwind

Mine has a 50-34 on

on the continent no one uses more than a 46.ever…..far to big.
average is 38-44 what sven uses in the dry and bart wellen uses same if not 38-42 in the wet?
i have 44-38 and works well with 12-27 out back…..

mmm thats interesting, didn't really seem to be a choice when I bought mine. It has seen quite alot of road use though so its come in handy. In fact I swapped the cassette for a 11-25 I think.

Going to be using it mostly for racing this winter so might try it with a slightly lower gear.