Originally Posted by
Smitty2k1
Thanks for the replies everyone. Lots to digest here. Honestly I probably would be happy with a 28T small ring instead of the 30T small ring. If probably also be ok dropping to a 48T big ring instead of the 50T I've got now.
Seems my best bet is to try the 28T small ring swap and see how shifting works. Wondering if I need a new FD since Shimano says this is designed for a 20T difference specifically at 30/39/50T?
from my experience, its not worth just dropping 2 teeth to a 28. When I changed my 50/39/30 to a 50/39/26 I knew if I was going to go through with the hassle of changing it, I might as well drop 4 teeth. I sourced the 26t at actual bike stores, same thing when I did the same thing for a friend of mine with the same crankset, but you will have to look online to find chainrings , so heck, go to 26.
My front derailleur handled the 26 from 30 with absolutely no issues, didnt have to touch a thing. I did however have to improvise a bit with putting some spacers inbetween the crankarms and the 26t, as the original 30t had a shape that put the actual chainring out a bit towards the frame, so I used washers I had , maybe a mm thick, to move it out just enough to work well.
like with all stuff in life, sometimes you have to improvise, and a bike store might tell you it cant be done, but in my case, it was fairly easy.
I did the chainring change myself, but who knows, you maybe have never removed crankarms or chainrings before, so you'll be back to getting a store employee to do it. Will really depend on if they are willing to do it. Often Ive found that if something isnt textbook, they wont want to do it because they need to cover themselves for fudging or improvising, and I get that.
the devil is in the details sometimes, thats life.
and then there is how much you want to spend. But on the money side, dont waste your time and money to only change 2t. And being 2t over the official limit is not a problem, but source that opinion elsewhere, dont believe me.