Litespud

My standard drivetrain is a Chorus 10 with a 12-23 cassette and a 50/39 crankset (replaced the standard 53 with a TA 50). I swap in a 13/29 cassette if I know I’m going to be doing a particularly hilly ride. While I can get away with 39/23 as my lowest gear for everyday riding, I’d like to extend my low end a bit. If you want to maintain the silver crankset look and maintain an all-Campagnolo drivetrain, you can still find NOS aluminum Athena or Veloce 10sp 50/34 cranksets on eBay. Otherwise, an 11sp crankset will also get you a 34 small ring (the downside being that the current 4-arm Campagnolo cranks are butt-ugly). Combine this with a 13/29 cassette should significantly extend your low end. The only problem is that this setup will likely exceed the chain wrap capacity of your standard cage RD - you’ll need a medium-cage RD, if you don’t already have one. Also out there as eBay NOS.

So, if you want to maintain 10sp and get as low as 34/29 (~32 g.i.), you’ll need a cassette, crankset, RD and maybe a new chain to match the cassette. Or you could go 11sp to get an 11/32 or 12/32 cassette (~29 g.i.), but you’ll then need shifters, RD, crankset, chain and cassette (and maybe an FD also). Either approach will give you a significantly lower low end (by my calculation, your current 39/25 low gear gets you 42 g.i., not 35)

Me, I’ll probably pick up an NOS 10sp compact crankset and swap it in some time in the next year or so. That’ll extend my low end sufficiently for everyday, and I’ll still be able to access a 34/29 low gear for hilly routes.