Geared Up: Part 2

A closer look at the crank...

Okay, so if you are following along, yesterday I talked about these FSA rings and how I was going to try out a 2 X 10 set up on the titanium Mukluk. In this post I'm going to follow up after my first ride on the set up happened yesterday during my commute to work and back.

The deal here, to quickly recap, is to make it so you can turn a triple crank into a double, yet have the optimized chain line that dedicated double only crank sets achieve. This is accomplished by offsetting the 36T and 22T rings 1.5mm to the outboard side of the crank. The fact that you have a triple crank is masked by FSA's clever little "ears" that mount on the outboard side of the spider, giving you a clean look.

Okay, so now that I've covered this, here are the conditions I got to ride in yesterday. 

And the full bike view...

Wettish, slushy snow. It was still spitting these little ice balls from the sky. The deeper snow was very wet, if it wasn't packed in, and then it was solid as a rock. I definitely needed to use most of the entire gearing range.

Notes:

• The FSA chain seemed to be a bit grumpy and not very "happy" to be meshing on teeth right away, but this quickly subsided. By the time I was coming back home it was smooth as silk. It shifted very nicely on both ends. 
• The chain rings shifted better as time went on as well. Partly due to a cable that needed adjusting, the up-shift was balky, but after the adjustment it was working acceptably. So far, these are at least as good as Shimano/SRAM stuff. More time needed....
• Gear ratio: The taller front drive ring was a bit of a concern at first, but I think the 36T is acceptable. I really like having the 22T on the bike for the deeper, slower "trundling" necessary to traverse the slush and deep snow. The bigger ring also extends the range on the high side, which I appreciated on the long downhill section coming home. The Snow Dog spins out on this frequently. 

Finally, I almost think that the 3.8 Larrys are actually better in some ways than the bigger Big Fat Larry tires. I've always thought they had more bite in the traction category than the BFL which likes to spin out easier. Still thinking about Nates.....

More on this set up later...