Who’s gone sub compact on their road bike(s)?

Fairly unfit/overweight guy on a heavy steel framed gravel bike with 42c tyres here….

Running Praxis Alba 48-32 with a 11-36 out back, bail out get is a tad to spinny but I do use it from time to time.
Only issue I’ve had from the Praxis is a bit of chain suck, find them quite nice tbf and the shifting is better than the Absolute Black on SRAM Apex they replaced.
Bought the Praxis 2nd hand so was cheaper than a set of SubCompact AB oval rings…

I put a 46-30 on my audax/comfy road bike last summer, mainly to see if I could get up the climbs in the pyrenees a little better than the 34t I’ve always used. I’m on campag 11 speed, so the max cassette size is a 29. Might not have bothered if I could have got a 34 cassette. I managed to shave a few minutes off a PB on a climb I’ve done quite a few times, and power numbers were similar, so I’d recommend it. I just switched back to a 12-25 cassette for the flatter roads.

I removed the 50/34 Ultegra chainset from my Tempest before it even turned a wheel. Who really needs 50 x 11? Fitted a 46/30 GRX and a GRX front mech. Felt far better with the 11-34 cassette. I’ve just fitted an 11-40 and roadlink for bigger offroad climbs. Gives a 20″ bottom gear. I really don’t get why factory bikes are so over geared for all but racing whippets.

Isn’t this whole debate easily solved with the return of the triple? Or have I missed something?

Probably because so many (like me) have been brainwashed. Up until recently, I just wouldn’t have considered anything lower just because 50-34 already seemed like the ‘bail out’ option and I secretly aspired to 53-39!

Then life, knees, back injuries and real road and riding conditions happened!

Probikekit have thrown a 12% off ‘flash’ discount at me, it had expired by the time I opened the email. Maybe next time…

I have praxis 48:32 on my Diverge, it spends winter as a slicked up road bike and the gearing is fine for here down south, pedally downhills are rare though, bit I dont think it would matter. Not had an issue with it apart from the eye watering price of replacement rings. Scotroutes reports bent rings and soft cranks, I’ve not had any probs, but then his are hire bikes and maybe ridden by uncaring/numpty riders. BB are shit but cheap and easy to fit once you have the special tool… not sure I’d go praxis if given the option but not sure what else provides those sized rings.

Isn’t this whole debate easily solved with the return of the triple? Or have I missed something?

Not really, that’s using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut in my particular case. I’m not really looking to increase the range or number of gears, just refine which gears I use for particular efforts, basically trying to move the chain further down the block more often!

BB are shit

Shit how, poorly sealed? Otherwise they just appear to be a really beefy external threaded BB.

I think now I’m erring toward absolute black rings if I do it at all, need to weigh up cost vs. other, probably more vital upgrades!

Just a comment on the statement ‘in the bottom of the cassette where the 1t jumps are’.
This misconception comes up frequently.
It’s not the number of teeth of the jump, it’s the percentage. In other words, the jump 30>32 is smaller than the jump from 11>12.

As far as the original question. Yes, a no brainer. If pro roadies ride a 53-39 crankset, 46-32 should workout well for most people, as surely the vast majority of riders in the world are more than 20% weaker than a top pro?
Not to mention the fact that they are racing, where they need to be able to keep up to the pac in an alpine descent at 90kmh, and be able to spring for the win at 60km/h.
For most riders, those situations don’t apply, so even if they were limited in their top sprint, or alpine despicable speed, it wouldn’t be a problem.

I run what I think they call a pro-compact – eg 52/36 in front. Paired with an 11-30 at the back. Gives pretty good choice. If I decided to do Haute Route – I would probably go compact to 50/34 and / or put a 11-32 on the back.

I’m using an Ultegra 46/36 on the ‘gravel’ bike, really liking the small gap when changing on front. 12-29 I think on back

My road bike is a triple 28/38/48 with an 11-30 out back. Perfect for everything.

I kind of figured the whole point of a subcompact on a road bike was to give you a chainring below 34t so could still have useful climbing ratios with a smaller range cassette, obviously sacrificing the tall end but gaining a closer range better suited to maintaining a spinning cadence for longer riding…

I kind of figured the whole point of a subcompact on a road bike was to give you a chainring below 34t so could still have useful climbing ratios with a smaller range cassette

The point for me would be less to do with lower gears (a happy bonus) but more the mechanical advantage of being able to use slightly smaller sprockets instead of spending all my time in the upper half of the cassette. Think I’ve realised going down to a 48 wouldn’t achieve much difference.

HOWEVER if I spent the money going 46/30 on the gravel bike with Absolute Black oval rings (once I figure out compatibility with my existing GRX mech) then that would free up my existing 48 tooth GRX ring which I could stick on my Tiagra cranks, giving me a 48/34 on the road bike and a 46/30 on the gravel bike. More marginal gains for my £££ 🙂

As far as the original question. Yes, a no brainer. If pro roadies ride a 53-39 crankset, 46-32 should workout well for most people, as surely the vast majority of riders in the world are more than 20% weaker than a top pro?

It’s not quite so simple.

It works for climbing, i.e. you should probably have a lowest gear equivalent to what the pro’s ride reduced by the ratios of your W/kg to theirs. Say about 66% of theirs. So if Froome has a 11-32, you should have a 11-46.

Downhill though the opposite it true, those extra kg’s are pushing you along, even on a moderate gradient gravity is probably 1000W of work on the average person. Whereas the skinny pro climber is struggling to keep up. So on ballance everyone ends up needing about the same high gear. Hence why a compact is 50 and a pro TT bike is still only 10% bigger.

Rather than change chainring on my last bike I just fitted a roadlink and a 36t cassette so I had 34F/36R which was a nice bailout gear but the gaps were a bit wide on 10sp.

That bike just got written off via a dickhead driver so on the replacement I’ll have 11sp 11-34 as standard at the back and will got oval 32/48 from absolute black. Should be best of both worlds.