Hi Kathi,

Glad you are happy with your Campy components. I look forward to giving them a try.

I am seriously considering a "compact double" chainring for this bike. These are pretty new and were used by Tyler Hamilton in the Tour. FSA makes a carbon one in a 34/50, which would allow me to use a double with a 13-29 in back. I need the low gears since we plan to do some events in the mountains (Appalachians). I can afford to give up some off the high end as I don't even use the highest gears I have now. I am nearly always in the middle chainring on my triple, spinning away, and I have no problems with doing a tuck-and-coast downhill if I run out of gears!

Anywho, the only drawback of the compact double chainring is that the smallest crank size it comes in is 172.5. I guess they don't expect women to try it - pooey!

I had been planning to try 170mm cranks on this bike as I am a really good high-cadence spinner already, and I'd read that going with one size longer cranks could help with leverage/power for climbing, which is what I need. But two sizes larger? I'm not sure. Yet when I look at a ruler, 7.5mm is not very much, so I am still inclined to give it a try. It would be an expensive mistake if it didn't work, but there's no other way to get a compact double (i.e., smaller double chainrings) without going that route that I've seen. And I'd like the carbon as well for weight savings.

So, we'll see what happens! Maybe someone else will put out a compact double with shorter cranks soon. I'm going to keep looking just in case.

Thanks again!
Emily