Building my old bike into a crit / turbo bike

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I have just a couple of questions, i know the crit bike build has been discussed many times. Hopefully these questions wont be too painful…

  1. I currently have 50/36 - 11/32 - is it worth going larger to 53/39 - 11/28 The crits I will be racing are pretty flat. (Going larger will this make training more effective?)
  2. Crank length…i currently have 170mm (running assimo pedals) is it worth going to a 165.5mm to prevent clipping a pedal when around corners?
  3. Marginal Gain question…is dropping handlebar width from 42 to 38 or 40 make me more aero or help with a sprint?

The frame…is that worth upgrading eventually, to something like a caad13 / allez sprint?

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Unless you are racing at an elite level that will be perfectly fine as is. The only thing you suggest that I’d consider would be the tighter range cassette.

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Spend nothing. Race it as is. If something on the bike genuinely holds you back (i.e. you spin our the 52/11 regularly) then you could consider making some changes.

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A compact (50/36) is fine. You’re not going to spin out of a 50/11 unless you’re regularly sprinting for the win in P12 races. If you can ride fine enough to clip a 170 crank but not clip a 165.5, you got some skilz :wink: Leave the cranks as is. Narrower bars might be a marginal gain if you’re a break away artist but being wide and having big elbows is not all that bad in the pack so it does depend on how you race. No real need to mess with the bars unless you’re looking for something to do.

The only change I would make is ditching the 11-32 cassette for an 11-25. That will still let you do most short punchy climbs in the big ring and give you closer gear spacing which is better in crits and on the trainer.

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