In the market for a new BBright crank, and curious to know if there are any advantages with going with a 110 bcd vs 130 bcd crank. (Not talking about 53t vs 50t). Since the bcd is smaller, wouldn't the crank spider be smaller and lighter too? I believe they make 53t chainrings for 110bcd, so the only thing i can see is that you wouldnt be able to use a 34t ring on 130 bcd. A 38t was the smallest i found for 130.

The drifference in weigth between compact and standard chainsets is a couple of grams. So the difference is in ring flex I think not that I can notice that either.

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Go compact- you can have best of both worlds. Can run 52/36 if you desire.

Compact is great if you need the lower gearing, like for steep or long climbs or a special trip to ride big mountains. Otherwise it's a wash. You can get 53t rings for 110mm BCD but they are not common. So if you feel that you'd be at a disadvantage with only a 52t ring, get the 130mm.

I live on a steep road, like races with big climbs and do a lot of climbing in general, so it's compact for me.

Back in the 80s I used a 110mm crank with 52/38 rings and couldn't tell the difference between that and 53/39.

I recommend compact 110mm bcd cranksets. You can easily run full size 53 rings and 39 inner rings. Or more useful 50 ring and 38, 36, 34, or 33 inner ring. Best of all worlds with compact ring size. Run 50-39 rings with 11 or 12 tooth cassette for round town riding. Then put on a 33 inner ring and 32 rear cassette for mountain climbing. I doubt when you run the same size rings on both size cranksets if there is any weight difference even though the spider is 130 and 110 mm bcd. Difference in spider is made up for in different size rings. Also doubt anyone less than a world class track racer could tell any flex difference in rings. Just more options with compact ring size.

Totally agree with this post. 50/34 if you are a pathetic climber and can't sprint over 70Kmh (Me ) and if you can sprint or just need a bigger gear ratio you can in a matter of 30 minutes or so switch your chainrings to 52/38.

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http://www.bicycling.com/bikes-gear/new ... 9000-group

If you scroll down to the section discussing the crank, you can see that Shimano ditched 130 for this new iteration (ditched a lot of things with it...) of Dura-Ace, and is going 110 all the way, including 55-tooth time trial rings. Keep in mind, they're Shimano's very stiff rings which can pull this off.

That said, I'm with KH1 for the exact same reasons: can't sprint so no need for the top end, and like to spin while climbing real hills.

Would choose 110 7 days in week, just because of flexibility.
But superlight rings do benefit from bigger bolt circle.

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Experimental Prototype

I run a standard crankset (130 BCD), with 48/38 rings, and then a 11-29 at the back. Admittedly a compact would be more ideal as you can never have too many gears on the hills round here, but to be honest 38 x 29 is enough for everything round here as I am a good climber. I ended up with a 130 BCD crankset as that was what was around and I wanted to keep my rings of which are clearly an unusual size.

I don't know who really needs 53 x 11 to be honest other than the pro sprinters maybe, 50 x 11 is definitely more than enough for most of us mere mortals. I rarely ever use the 11 sprocket with my 48T ring as I never sprint - it depends on your riding style.

I'd recommend the compact, it gives you so much more flexibility.

What chainring options are available in 52T / 110 BCD?

You can do a search for them on xxcycle.com

They sell plenty of chainrings to begin with.

I had a similar question and found this article to be helpful:
http://thedailygrind.robdamanii.com/201 ... t-gearing/

TA make exccelent rings in 110BCD in all ring sizes you can think of.

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