Hello everyone,

(I've put that topic on a training forum, but I didn't get any response because of wrong forum probably)

Here I will be seeking for some recommendations of yours and I hope you lot will help me to make my decision easier

So, to start with: I've got 2 bikes (excluding a track bike), one best one was supplied with 53/39 - 11-25 gearing and that was my first bike I bought myself last summer. I live in hilly area, however, becoming a reasonable climber I cannot call English climbs very hilly. I didn't have a lot of problems with climbing.. only right at the beginning because I didn't cycle for 4 years.

More than 2 months ago I've bought a winter bike with compact chainset 50/34 and 11-25 cassette too. I've also invested in garmin 500 with cadence sensor etc. Although the bike is heavier I can see that I can climb equally or marginally better on the compact chainset by doing higher cadence and at the top I'm not that tired too. Overall, general riding is as good and as quick as my best bike but I can do better on the climbs. Thing worth mentioning here is that I've had a great bike fit and the positions are as close as they could be and almost identical

I also ride on the track and I consider myself good sprinter. I can quite easily top 64km/h on lowish 84'' gearing, which gives me around 12secs for 200m flying (I didn't try bigger gear but I would have to soon ) at Manchester velo and by being 190cm tall I don't think long legs help the cadence too much I also know that sprinting would be my main strength when it comes to racing and I will start racing in a month time.

So, hope I explained everything so here comes a question. I'm tempted by power2max powermeter to obviously get the most out of my training and I was thinking whether should I go compact or standard? I feel better on the compact, I think, even though I'm considering myself a sprinter (at the moment) and it's also better in hills for me and I'm sure it would be even better if I had an access to hills that are longer than 10kms. However, the dilemma could be that standard could be better for racing but I know that not necessairly. I don't think even best sprinters in the world need 53/11 and for most people, especially for amateurs 50/11 should be more than enough for sprinting. So, am I thinking in a right way and should I go for compact crankset-based power meter and sell my standard from my best bike ? also if I go this way for racing I would use 11-21 casette and for general training/riding probably 12-25 or 11-25.

Sorry for writing too much and I will appreciate every advice given
Best Regards

Get Compact. You can buy Extralite 110mm Compact size rings in a 53/39 combo if you ever want to larger gearing.

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Parlee Z3 4.94kg: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=101920
Wilier Cento Uno SL 5.52kg: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=101957

Go standard. You can change cassettes easily if needed.

If you never need the lower gearing then the standard is better. But the compact is more flexible. What if you decide to head over to France or Italy and do a sportif with a bunch of big climbs? As pointed out above you can get standard sized chainrings for the compact crank.

The compact will be slightly lighter.

There is an option to have both on a power meter. The THM M3 Carbones SRM crank, if purchased in the compact version, allows you to switch out between compact and standard chainrings. It's definitely more expensive than the Power2Max, but it allows for flexibility that other options don't. I checked with SRM USA's customer support team and they say that as long as you're using round chainrings and purchase the compact version of the M3 then you can switch back and forth between compact and standard as much as you want and, more importantly, that there is no need to recalibrate the SRM. Nice benefit there in not needing to recalibrate.

Priced at $2695 without chainrings from the SRM USA store it comes in below the offerings from Campagnolo (what doesn't??), Shimano in both the 7900 and 7800 cranksets, Sram, Rotor and FSA. None of those offerings allow you to swap between compact and standard chainrings either.

Couple it with a few pair of Praxis chainrings and I think you've got yourself a damned good power meter setup for about the same price as if you bought yourself a Power2Max or a Quarq in a compact configuration and had another standard crankset for when you wanted it.