Originally Posted by
Hot Potato
I forgot about those aftermarket cranks, and was just comparing the typical OEM cranks. That's some serious low gearing, I would have to travel far from home to need it.
You can use any triple crank with a 74mm BCD (almost all of them) and mount a 24 tooth granny ring (available from Sugino and Salsa to name a few). The only triple cranksets that this won't work for that I can think of right now are the Dura Ace 7800 and new Ultegra 6700 triples. Both use non-standard granny ring mounts.
I run a 52/42/28 on my commuter bike. The only downside is the necessity for many shifts when going from the middle ring to the granny.