Hello everyone. I had a crash recently and my outer chainring is bent so I need a new one. At the moment I am having 50T one but my club mates advised me go for 53T. Can you please explain me what are the pros and cones of switching from 50T to 53T. And from the technical point of view what I will have to adjust in my Di2 (Ultegra) to adopt new amount of teeth.
I would consider what tooth combination gets you closest to your naturally selected cadence for common gears. Sometimes selected cadence will sway towards the edges of one but hits a sweet spot in another
Going to a 53T would also mean you need to change the inner chainring as well, so it would increase the size of your smallest gear. This might or might not be an issue for you, but something to keep in mind.
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If you are keeping a 34 inner you’ll need to stay with a 50T.
Otherwise the teeth difference is too big.
Standard Chainring setups are
50 / 34
52 / 36
53 / 39
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53 x 12 is like 50 x 11
You basically need 1 gear down to maintain with the group.
The benefit is in the inner ring.
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one benefit - straighter and more efficient chainline if you spend a lot of time riding fast, without looking at a gearing calculator I’d guess you would need to routinely ride 25-35mph to see this type of benefit.
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I run a 52/34 (granted on Quarq/SRAM 5-bolt), and it works fine. I’ve found that this combo works really well for me.
Sure the front shifting is a little less crisp, and you have to make sure that you adjust the chair/derailleur so that you have enough chain, yet don’t have slack when in small ring/smaller cogs. This is really not a big issue since DI2 blocks out several of the small/small combos. I simply had to adjust the b-screw a bit.
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I’m going to run that (52/34) for a week in Tenerife. I can hopefully easy swap back to 52/36 on return which is perfect for round here.
You can absolutely run a 52/34 CR combo.
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Pro: You look like a badass at the cafe
Con: You don’t climb like a badass on the road
My real answer: 52/36 basically gives you best of both worlds.
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Do you often spin out? Want a bigger gear on fast rides or descents? Do you race? If yes, change both chain rings. If no, get another 50t.
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I know 1 or 2 riders in my group who runs a 53/36. The shifting will be a little slower though I think but it’s possible.
If he didn’t give you a reason for the change then I would ignore guys like this. He’s probably the same as the people that tell you not to eat on a ride and pedal everywhere at 60rpm.
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Solid advice here.
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Did you often spin out your highest gear with the 50T? If not then no need to make life harder for yourself with a bigger chainring. In reality most people don’t need a 53T. Maybe if you are very strong and often drafting in very fast groups then it could be better, but otherwise unlikely to be any advantage.
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If you can turn it it may make you faster if you cant it’ll definitely make you slower.
FWIW, I run a 53T on my TT bike which for sporting TT’s in this area its ideal. It used to be on my road bike too but I now run a 52/36 and prefer it. I have had a 50/34 for trips to mountainous areas but for here/me I prefer the semi compact.
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If you have to ask, no way 53t.
As Dave said, if he didn’t explain why then dont take his advice.
50/34 is a good combo.
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Never said you couldn’t, I just stated the standard combinations. If going 53T in reality you need to swap out the 34 unless you like failed changes, clunky changes, dropped chains etc.
There is no blanket response. Like others have said, you will gain one gear at the top, but you will also move the gear combos with 1-cog jumps at the top of the cassette further up. So that means you could have a larger jump at your cruise speed.
Ultimately, I think very few people need a 53-tooth chain ring. My top most gear is a 42:10 = 4.2 = 50:12, and I can cruise at 50 km/h at 100 rpm, which is my self-selected cadence. I spin out at 65ish km/h at about 120 rpm. I don’t find I need more gears than that to be honest. According to the SRAM AXS web page, I use the 10-tooth cog mostly as an overdrive gear.
What other wrote about straighter chain line, larger efficiency and the like is completely correct. But for amateurs like us, I don’t think it matters.
Personally, I’d advise most people to go smaller, because that’d move down the closely spaced gears and has the potential for easier climbing gears.
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Shimano or SRAM may have “standard” CR combinations, but that doesn’t mean that running other options doesn’t work just fine. It may require a bit more finesse under load, but to say that it will have lots of failed changes or dropped chains is simply incorrect.
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