Retro 'Compacts': A Tale of Obsession

Johnsqual

Senior Retro Guru
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
 
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Johnsqual":2a82v34d said:
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').

Excellent Johnny - I'm right with you on this. Co Durham ain't Holland in terms of terrain (or weather, or indeed much else!). So I face the same issues. A ride last year in Scotland on the road alongside the M74 from Moffat to Abingdon (that's 15 miles uphill) using 42 with a 26 cog convinced me finally of the stupidity of attempting this now I am the wrong side of 50.

Being a Campagnazi (I do like that) might I suggest a further heretical addition to your ideas above?

I fitted a (wait for it...........)

Centaur MTB crankset to my Denton after this :shock: :shock: :shock:. 110 BCD, set up as a double to work with my existing Victory FD, but actually could be a triple if you use the additional inner smaller BCD bolts. Mine is set up as 48/34 with a medium cage Suntour Radius RD (I might be a C Nazi but I also love old Suntour gear).

As you say, keeps the classic appearance of Campag but is much more practical than a 135 BCD set.

And the cranks cost me £6.50 from a well known specialist Campagnolo eBay seller here in the UK. NOS TA rings added another £20ish or so. Bargain!

HW
 
Re:

Thanks Hillwalker.

The 'two of a triple' is a good idea, and those Campagnolo MTB sets look a lot like the C-Record type designs - very nice.

Stronglight do (or did) an adaptor that lets you turn a double into a triple too, so you could so a two of a triple with that, using a standard chainring.

All fun stuff for obsessive tinkerers :D
 
Lets face it, a 'compact' chainset is only an MTB one with the granny ring removed. Shimano and Campag share 110BCD. I used an XT crankset on a road bike for years with 50/34 before 'compacts' became available.
 
I used to have a Stronglight 80 with an 86mm BCD and I think it had 48/34 chainrings on which was great for commuting and even fully loaded touring.
The only reason I ditched it was because I was clumsy taking the cranks off once and stripped the drive-side extractor threads.

Mark.
 
I've also investigated knee friendly gearing setups for classic bikes in the past so I can add some more info...

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.
There are loads of options here. Stronglight 80/99/100/Escape chainsets all have an 86bcd which gives a minimum ring size of 28T. SR also made a similar 86bcd chainset called the Apex. All of these use regular crank pullers and a (limited) selection of rings are available new from Spa Cycles.

TA Cyclotouriste/Stronglight 49D/Sugino PX/Nervar/Velo Orange and others. These are 50.4bcd and take chainrings down to 26t. The TA and Stronglight do use weird crank pullers but the others use normal ones. Alledgedly these can be set up with 4 chainrings if you're that way inclined. New rings are a bit pricey but are available.

SUNTOUR: Produced the mysterious VX crankset with 110 BCD!
Also Sugino made the retro looking Maxy crankset in 110bcd.

I fitted a (wait for it...........)

Centaur MTB crankset to my Denton after this :shock: :shock: :shock:. 110 BCD, set up as a double
I did the exact same thing once, with a Centaur ATB crank set up as a 48/36. Another option with a 110/74bcd triple if you want to go really low is to have chainrings in the middle and inner positions (say 42/2:cool: and fit a chainguard instead of the big ring.

Lots of options out there :D
 
I've considered an M900 XTR crankset with the granny ring mounts ground off in the past

it runs on a 107mm BB, and could probably go shorter with the mounts ground off, so Q should be fairly low
 
I like this thread. It's great when you get all this information in one place!

I think I agree about 52T chainrings. I have one on my bike but hardly ever use it despite my commute being quite flat. I generally find a gear I like somewhere near the top of my 14-19 cassette using the 42T at the front.

Another thing to consider for cranks is some of the new track chainsets have 130 and smaller BCDs but aren't modern looking like the road stuff so look like old chainsets. Pretty sure Miche track chainsets (e.g. Primato) are 130bcd and there's nothing stopping you fitting road rings to them. Then you can go for mega low Q as mentioned above :D
 
Thankks for a great guide. I had always thought Victory 116mm rings were impossible to find, the kid crank option is welcomed!

Not quite as old kit, but I like a close ratio cassette. Using 1994 Campag stuff I have a 12-23 with a 30/39/48 triple and Chorus short cage rear mech. It just works in a rattly way with extreme cross-chaining so it's safe. For normal gears it's fine and gives that crawler gear for when you are shattered. The total weight penalty is a 30T ring plus 5 crank bolts.
 
Re:

Love this post. makes me feel almost normal.I am in Nidderdale and I see riders round here going up climbs with crazy high gears. Stressing and straining for every turn of the cranks.My golden rule is that the small front ring must have no more teeth than the largest ring at the back. That will get me up most all of the hills round here. I run triples on my distance and winter bikes but all else abides by the above rule.Stronglight chainsets are reasonable but only buy zicral rings.Whatever anyone tells you the non zicral inner rings will die in no time at all.A complete waste of cash.Appreciate the info regarding other crank alternatives. My use of stronglight is giving the bikes a sameness that I am not too happy with. Good stuff this.An excellent posting
Regards
Peter
 
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