Had a bit of a tinker this afternoon, and have been doing some thinking about parts. It all stems from the fact that the cassette I wanted to fit is now as rare as sparkly unicorn farts, so it looks like I'll have to go with an 11-32 by default.
That will definitely mean that the existing crankset won't be ideal. Unfortunately (and unsurprisingly) stock isn't great on replacements, and in any case, the cranks are too long (typically 170 or 175). Not sure where to look for junior cranksets - any ideas
@DCLane ?
Anyways, as I mentioned several pages ago, I have the original FSA outer chainring (of a triple) and cranks that were OEM on my Wiggins Chartres 26. The bike's previous owner swapped them out to something she preferred, but gave me all the original bits when I bought the bike. I put these on the Raleigh this afternoon to see how things fitted. Well, they fit and look good (they're black, so go swimmingly with the colour scheme), but clearances are very tight.
The Raleigh's BB spindle is 122mm, which is far too short really. I probably need a spindle in the region of 140mm if I'm going to go with *any* crankset other than the original. That side of things should be easily rectifiable, I think.
The outer ring I have is 46T @ 130 BCD with 5 bolts, and I'm thinking, assuming what I need exists, about building a 46-34-22 triple up from scratch (or something along those lines). I'll probably ask a more detailed question on the mechanics & repair board to a) see if this is feasible, b) financially viable and c) if so, what additional bits I'll need in order to build a functioning triple.
What do you reckon, folks?
I'll take some photos of the FSA cranks and big ring as fitted tomorrow, and pop them in there.
