Weekend Solo Rides & The Compact Crank

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Its been awhile since I reported back. Nothing too eventful except doing a bit more solo rides. Last weekend completed 2 solo rides. 105km non-stop (ave speed of 27.6km/h) on Saturday and 5 loops Faber on Sunday. I felt quite good on Saturday, and if not for the time constraint I would have gone another one or two rounds....I still had another bottle of water. Granted it rained for almost 30+ km, so it wasn't hot at all and I kinda enjoy cycling in the rain anyways.

My Shimano R700 compact crank arrived on Saturday and I installed it along with the 12/27 cassette that very afternoon. Installation was pretty simple...only difficult thing was removing the freaking Keo Pedals. I got a nasty cut on on my pinky while removing the pedal from the drive side crank, nothing serious though. Tried this setup going up Faber.....indeed....the compact setup give a true granny gear. I was no longer grinding, even at the steepest parts along Kg.Bahru, in fact spinning at 70rpm using the Granny gear. Actually for such a short climb the compact setup is unnecessary but I think climbing continuously for 40km, it will be a god-sent.



The crank looks a lot like the Ultegra crank finishing/design and the arms just look long....prob because of the smaller rings! The rings are very DA like though, nice matt finish on them. Shifting is very very smooth. Had to remove 2 links from the chain though as there was too much slack when at 34 - 12.

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