Road bikes offer us a few different choices in terms of front chain ring size. As a mountain biker, I prefer running what they call a compact crank set. That means the bolt circle diameter on these cranks is the same as on a mountain bike crank. So, I can run a small ring of 36 teeth -- or even down to 34 teeth, which, compared to what you can run on a normal road crank -- which is a 130 BCD, it's 39 teeth. So, five teeth is a huge difference. My top gear -- I also run a little bit smaller top gear. Instead of running a 53, I run a 50. So, you can see right here, it's inscribed on my chain ring, 50 - 34. And what this compact drive setup does, is it allows me to have a set of gears that's more suitable for climbing speeds and mid-range speeds, with the compromise of having gears that aren't quite as tall for when I'm really going downhill. But as somebody who isn't competitive -- I'm not a competitive road racer anymore, I just like to go out and ride -- it's a good option. Another option for road bikes is you can run a triple setup, like you would on a mountain bike. You'd want to get a road-specific triple setup, because just the configuration of the frames is different -- a mountain bike one would probably hit down here, in an area called your chain stay. So, road triple is usually a 30-tooth small ring, then a 39 or 42-tooth middle ring, and a 53-tooth large ring. That's a really wide range of gears which can really help you ride fast everywhere with the appropriate amount of effort. I'm not going to say least amount of effort, because it's never easy climbing hills.
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