Everyone knows that the quality of one’s character is measured by the size gear they can push, particularly when going uphill. It is also a well-established fact that no self-respecting Flemish Pro would ever ride a Compact, no matter what condition their knees are in or how ferocious the gradient. Which, by extension, means that Compacts are for sissies. In fact, a true Flandrian would rather lose their national race than ride a Sissy Gear.
The first time we rode with Johan Museeuw, we were shocked to find him aboard one of his carbon/flax race machines – and a compact chainset. Not wanting to offend an Apostle by suggesting he’s riding his son’s bike, I asked him what he thought of it. “I don’t like it. The big ring isn’t big enough for climbing.”
The standard Flemish chainset is – and has been for as long as the Ancients have tracked these details in their sacred scrolls – either a 53T or 52T outer ring paired to a 42T inner ring. On the occasions when the parcours will see them scaling the Koppenberg or Kapelmuur, the Belgians make a concession and dust off their trusty 41T inner ring in order to shorten the gear by a whopping single tooth. In the mountains or over in Wallonia (the land of savages) where they are far from the prying eyes of their proud public, the Flemish hardman may allow his mechanic to bolt on a lowly 39T ring, so long as no one brings it up at the dinner table. (It is worth noting that in Cyclocross it is standard practice to ride a 38T inner ring.)
Museeuw has never been a grimpeur, not when he was a Pro and not now. On Keepers Tour 2013, we had the opportunity to do several more rides with him, one of which was over the roads of Liege-Bastogne-Liege. It was customary for him to suggest alternate routes that avoided the steep hills, and so it was that he tried to talk us out of riding the Stockeu. We rode up side-by-side, taking our time. As we alternated between pedaling and doing track stands, he asked if I was riding a compact. I feigned a combination of exasperation and insult at such a question and told him it was a Flemish Compact.
“Oh, a 39? Goed.”
[dmalbum path=”/velominati.com/content/Photo Galleries/frank@velominati.com/Belgian Compact/”/]
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@scaler911
I know that quote well, and I'll see the backside of 45 next week...
Been riding fixed for 30 years and exclusively for most of the past decade. Aging knees brought me back to gears (52/42+13/22 on the vintage steel, 53/39+12/25 on the carbone).
But I still climb better and faster on a track bike with 52/18. Maybe it's the stiffness of the frame, that bit less friction. Or maybe it's the lack of options...
Firstly ...there should be a new RULE concerning compact chainsets and their use (Rule 5 covers this, I know but I believe there is a need to be specific)
With the possible caveat: I purchased a bike on a tax-free scheme a couple of years ago and spent the full amount (£1000) because I needed a new training bike -to commute to work on obviously! Try finding a bike in that price range with a real chainset? I settled on a Cannondale CAAD8 105 (mainly because my race bike is a CAAD9 ...same geometry). Unhelpfully, the bike shop were adamant that they couldn't change it under the rules of the scheme (I suspect they were lying, lazy or both) so I had to take it as it was ....but not before I had ordered 110mm BCD 52 and 42 rings which were waiting when the bike came home. Guess what the first job was? Problem solved. The offending articles were subsequently deposited at the recycling bank. However, even though it's fooled my clubmates, I've always felt fraudulent and cheap; and the BB30 bottom bracket has been problematic so I'm getting a BSA converter sleeve and installing an old 1998 Dura-Ace chainset with the 'correct' 53/42 arrangement: 12-23 for training and 14-25 for the winter ...I do live in a lumpy part of the world! Oh, and I'll happily confess to fitting a 39T for Costa Brava/Canary Island training camps.
The Saints wouldn't ride a compact.
They also don't do the job I do, so expecting me to do the same as them is a little optomistic.
@rastuscat
I'm not sure that the views of the seminal Australian punk band have been established on this matter.
I suspect Chris Bailey would need a compact but Ed Kuepper would almost certainly be old-skool, sur la plaque with DT shifters.
@Wold Man How about a rule stating that you can't propose a rule and then in the next line propose a caveat to that rule applying to you.
I suspect that a specific sur la plaque ruling would be one of the least obseverved, for both budgetary reasons and the perceived benefits to older, frailer knees.
I do ride a standard 53/39 on my CAAD8 105 (also a tax free "commuter") but I live in an extremely flat part of the country. I aslo run a 12-23 on the back because I hate the gaps in ratios if I can avoid them. It's a Cannondale SI crank so I could swap the spider and rings for a compact set up for hillier riding. I'm off to France next week but a combination of having mislaid some of my tools and not being arsed because I know that I'll be slow either way means that it'll remain a standard even if I head off into the Pyrenees.
I suspect that @frank'll be waiting a long time for somebody to invent the maths he needs to prove that riding in the big ring is better than an equivalent gearing on the inner ring but my standard did feel better on the cobble this year than the compact did last year. That's probably more a case of adrenalin and being less fat this year but who knows.
@ChrisO
Showing your vintage (obviously similar to my own) with that gem. Many a drunken night watching The Saints play live in my youth. I always remember a gig on the Gold Coast where the band played for an hour, Chris Bailey came on and did an acoustic set of about an hour which included numerous anecdotes (accompanied by numerous swigs from a Vodka bottle), with the band joining him for the final set. Truly an amazing night.
yeah, a compact for Chris as he'd be too pissed to push a big ring
@Wold Man CAAD8 bottom brackets aren't problematic they just need more Rule 65.
I'm something of an evangelist for the compact crank, so I'll take the opposing view here. If you live in a hilly area, such as in the foothills of the blue ridge mountains in the United States, most people are better served by compact gearing -- looks be dammed. I spent the better part of a decade trying to build more strength to spin up mountains in a 39 ring and once I switched to compact a year ago I've never looked back. No more killing myself at ~60 rpm up >10% grades. The hills are still hard, but my gearing better matches the terrain. I don't intend to brag, but I also happen to be one of the strongest climbers in my area (evidenced by Strava and winning a mountain ascent time trial) so my view isn't from the perspective of the 90kg non-climber who hates hills -- I seek out the hardest climbs I can find.
The downside is that you spend way more time in the 50 ring and saying sur la plaque doesn't have the same ring to it as when you don't run a 53 in front. Check out the gearing that pros use to climb the Angrilu in the Vuelta and you can feel good about your compact setup. Choosing the right gearing for the terrain seems more pro to me than riding a single gear arrangement 52 weeks of the year.
@Marcus
Technically, he is not wrong.
@Marcus
"Turbo Palin," indeed. Very funny. No need to go feeling superior, though. Our ignorant lunatics are far more numerous and better organized.