What Chainring/s is everyone running these days

Joined
Mar 28, 2017
Messages
431
Hey guys! Figure i'd post this since I'm right in the middle of replacing my drive stuffffff... Getting a new chanring and crankset along with chester pedals... I desperately need new pedals...mine dont even spin..and one is half missing.

I'm running a 38t up front single drive with a 6 speed cassette in the back from 14 to 28 I believe...

Like I said earlier, I'm moving up to a 54t chainring up front. Freaking huge I know! I'm actually a bit worried it won't fit my frame but we'll see once I get it. I definitely need a new bottom bracket as my current one wobbles back and forth on the pedals...ugh...

I'd say I top out around 10-12MPH with my 38t-14t lowest gear... So when I'm cruising into work at 25-30mph, me pedaling is worthless and I'm doing nothing... I'm hoping with this new chainring up front I'll at least match my speed with pedaling and actually get a tad bit of exercise!

Curious to see what everyone else is running with their setup! I'm kinda disappointed my rear hub motor only came with a 6 speed cassette...but that's for another day.
 
I'm using 46T up front, and at my normal cruising speed (17mph), a 13 tooth cog in the rear. 46T is the maximum I can fit, with about a half a millimeter clearance with the chainstay. If I want to ride faster, I have an 11 tooth rear cog, but 17mph is really efficient for my motor. At that speed, the motor is drawing 275 watts, with me making up the difference pedaling.
 
I run a 53-42 chainring combo with a road crankset on a pretty typical mid to low price aluminum mountain bike with 26" wheels.
The freewheel cluster is 11-13-15 ... It would be better if it were 12-13-14-15 because the 13 isn't quite tall enough at 28 mph and the 11 is a bit too tall.

My typical commute speeds are in the 20-28 mph range depending on terrain, wind, mood etc - drawing 350 - 650 watts.
 
999zip999 said:
52- 11t can pedal at 30 maybe 32 miles an hour. But a wider bottom bracket on and I took a hammer to my chromoly frame.

Yes, you can increase chainring clearance with chainstays by installing a bottom bracket with more offset. Of course, that shifts your crank positions a bit as well. But my experience is that this is generally a minor thing.
 
The motor kit I bought for my wife's bike also only came with a 6-speed freewheel. The cheap included freewheels are also not cut for hyper glide, so shifting is pretty rough. I replaced it with an 11-28 DNP freewheel, which worked well enough I got one for my bike as well. My bike has 28-38-48 tooth chainrings in the front, and the 48 front 11 rear combo easily lets me contribute my energy pedaling at 25 mph, maxing out around 32mph.

$30.99 Rear gearset faster and hyper-glide DNP Epoch Freewheel 7spd 11-28 Nickel Plated
$8.94 Freewheel removal tool Park Tool FR-1 FR-1.3 Freewheel Remover for Shimano
$6.15 Bottom bracket tool Bikehand Bicycle Shimano Bottom Bracket Removal Tool
$14.20 Crank puller Park Tool Compact Crank Puller CWP-7 22 x 1mm threads
$21.79 Sealed bottom bracket with metal cup SHIMANO UN55 Square Taper Bottom Bracket (68x127.5mm) You might want to measure the length (width?) of your existing bottom bracket first.

Picture can be open as a new tab for full resolution:

kB0xyWmpNGEm0CFeVFRgfZfmYh37aIHs695378Dk4rUSS_cij9jShpdMF3zgn2ci4ID_QyJuN-rvUIZeBY9UMdnsdrt32NFm32knOaY8K0FTR5rdlggDoFF70Ec8OIMdVYFd7WP--5JLvN6u0o4hJR8Pc3Zxa_NbOw7sEnjqyF9n6XLXJ8rLxTZFMdfzF3ylihq3eD733KaNo_sNvoOP8nEzsio6_-xVD2QalMGLB5bdcbraapdwfq-pyqZfOK9BcPIXwiBp7vDNUy-JDw-ivc03qbCHreDrpx53lHE57IjRFBGpXaZth5eZv7i3KE8q3xL-EhPKq_lGop95fKuMWHUvZnwIu789vMo-Cm1MwEDqGbWCGDpH7FGo1Zfz5jX3XH5Y2AZ5OldNKpx6cJqJAyJxiDOqcZFHWdn6ndgbVwp_hTZW6RGV70qPLeSqcV5rpyV-pjrm67IaIdj65hvc151ZoETb73nVvqNtDWKpOBZdhMtQVJilkwNVlvtRizO8CbJT3tFQkkNBrnDdqh2jKhY1b-oOxun_GWXrZCZ6aAMRJp6jiphrHI19kQ43z1h48AvLr8H8SN_TFP3_fG47masY10DbzojANXz0Oij_oObp3BrIJ_2an9H5GV2I4M6hFOWsudCgYb2qW2yC0ITJcDazuRKs30JwoeVbBMiM221RDiCY_epsQV_0SV_ZkVm8TpKRzV2Tip8x7AUqYRJ9GJSX=w1666-h937-no
 
Yea I'm going to wait till I get the new chainring and crankset to see if I need a new wider bottom bracket. I'm 87.6% sure that my bottom bracket isn't the sealed kind so probably this weekend I'll pull it out and rebuild it and regrease everything. It spins great but you can create a noticeable wobble in the pedals so I'm sure I'll need a new one, one of these days.

My chain line isn't great with my middle chainring from a 3 set chainring up front and sometimes the chain will fall off toward the outside of the bike. You can notice even in the fastest gear that there's a decent angle between the front and rear sprockets. I'm hoping the new crank allows me to fix this and I can mount the chainring on either side of the crankarm spider if I need to. It also comes with a guard which is perfect because my dress pants have gotten caught up in my chain from time to time.

I'll consider it successful if I can continue at least 50w of human power to my commute. Not only that but at least it'll look nicer.
 
Surprise surprise! The crankarms arrived early! Had a little issue with the fit though. I can't have the chanring on the inside of the spider or else it'll hit the frame... so I have it on the outside which is perfect..however, the screws are meant for the guard...so I used a few rubber washers since I only needed like 1 more mm for them to fit perfectly...


33762447688_b6514b1a20_b.jpg


Overall I'm quite happy! Definitely an upgrade! Now I just need new pedals and I will have a decent mech setup for my bike.... :bigthumb:
 
I loved my 56 tooth, but it went up in the fire, on the bike that started the fire. It was really nice on that bike, since its rear wheel was 20", but with 56-14 gear I could pedal nice at 20 mph on that bike. The whole thing btw, was aimed at 18-20 mph, so it worked out perfect with that gear.
 
Oh my gosh... So I rented a capital bike for the first time yesterday...I had to go 4mi in the city across the natl mall... It was killer! Yea I have huge respect for real bikers now. My legs were on fire🔥...im hoping this new chainring allows me to build up my strnght and endurance without too much effort like no motor at all...wow!
 
52T.......originally had 30/42/52T w/derailure on my Trike
I found that most (all?) of my Florida riding never used small rings....so I removed shifter/delrailure and replaced crankset w/LitePro single-speed crankset mated w/LitePro 52T. Updated pedals to clipless w/shoe grips on backside also.
I shaved off 31 ounces by going with these upgrades alone!!
Rings on back 11/34 hub moter's cassette give me plenty of range for all my riding when I choose to go un-powered.
 
Oh man! This new setup is the bomb! Riding into work today. The 54t chainring is great and the entire setup is butter smooth! I think the new pedals are a huge help too! I do still end up exceeding really the fastest I'm willing to pedal on my short commute right now but I can definitely keep up with it at higher speeds!
 
Back
Top