How Do you like the XD2 wide/low double crank RBW sells?

[lum gim fong]

And how does that guard attach?
Is it a real double or an xd2 triple with the guard in place of the outer ring?

[iamkeith]

It's the later, and it is beautifully made. As Riv says, much nicer than anything you should expect to still find in this day and age.

[Jay in Tel Aviv]

When Riv 1st came out with this the idea really appealed to me.
Since I already had the triple I bought the guard and 40 T ring and put it together myself.
I was using a 9 speed 11-34 cassette at the time so that essentially gave my 1X9 for every day and the lower range if and when needed. It's pretty flat where I live.
I really liked it until I switched to single speed. In fact, it's still on the bike even so.

[Ron Mc]

I have a photo of mine (custom rings matched with custom Miche cassette)

The crank is a triple, using the 110 outer position for the chain guard, the outer ring then is the 110 inner position, and the small ring is on the 74mm position.  

42T is the largest ring that matches the chain guard.  

When I put this together, I bought the rings and chain guard from Rivendell, and the bare arms from a discount vendor (did detailed build logistics up front and ordered batch parts).  

Google compact double crankset, and you'll instantly see why Grant's quote rings true.  Everything else on the market looks like Hot Wheels.  

[Brad]

Like Jay, I didn't buy the XD2 wide/low double. But I was riding a 26-36-46 triple XD2 and found the 36 a little low, so I put a 46 in the middle (I didn't use the ring that came with the crank because it was ramped & pinned) and put an old 52 with the teeth cut off on the outside. I rode it as a 26-46 for a while. The shifting wasn't great, but not a big deal because I rarely used the little gear. For the D2R2 I replace the 26 with a 30 because I knew I'd be using the low gear a lot more and wanted better shifting.

If I were buying a new crank, I wouldn't hesitate to buy the setup that Riv sells. 

Long story short, I wanted a Rene Herse compact double crank so I tried out the same gearing with the crank and chainrings I already had sitting around. And the guard keeps my pants slightly cleaner!

Brad

Queens

[Ron Mc]

The guard does everything you could ask of it.  On a single track one day, mine landed square on a large rock, and I thought one of us for sure had to be damaged.  On close inspection, there was not a mark on anything - the bash guard did its job.  

Before randomly changing drivetrain teeth count to see what you get, plug it into a gear calculator, so you'll know up front.  

[lum gim fong]

Wait. So the xd2 triple and xd2 double cranks are identical. Both triple cranks. Just RBW puts 2 chainrings and a bguard on the xd2 triple, and then just calls and sells it as a double?

[Joe Bernard]

Correct. They sell the triple and double-with-guard for the same price, same for the Silver variants.

[drew]

i consider this to be a feature. more than once i have swapped outer ring for bashguard and back again. its pretty easy to find a double crank, but finding one with a matching, good looking, bash guard is much much harder. 

[George Schick]

I agree with all of the positive comments about the XD2 wide/low on this post.  I have an old 1970's vintage Fuji Finest that I had converted to a single speed.  And that served me just fine for many years on most trails in the area.  Then I gradually got to the point where some of the steeper climbs (7% - 8% grade) just got to be too much for my aging carcass.  So I started fishing around in my parts box and came up with a NOS Sun Tour Winner 13-23 five speed freewheel, still in the box.  Then, I started looking around on the web for a crankset with chainrings that would match the freewheel cogs nicely.  Riv's XD2 40/26 combo was it!  It gives me my favorite 70" on the 15T cog (while on the big chainring) and I can bump it up to an 82" in one direction for some downhills and down to 63" and 53" for milder climbs (pedestrian bridge approaches, etc.).  Then, when I get to the steeper climbs I can switch down to the 26T ring for a "granny" to spin my way up.  Yes, this amounts to some overlap gears between the two chainrings and that freewheel, but I don't care - I just use the 26T and the two largest cogs for the steepest climbs and stay on the 40T 95% of the time, anyway.  It all worked out perfectly.  

[lum gim fong]

Gorgeous pic of your crank, Ron!

So a quick email to Rivendell confirmed that the XT two triple and wide load double are indeed the same crank spiders. And so I ordered a 40 tooth chain ring and I'll keep the 24 that came with my triple on their stock. And I'm going to run the 40 ring with a cassette that gives me the full range I need and then use the 24 rang as a bell out. I got the bash card too. Hopefully that will be great and winter when I wear long pants and then I won't have to time my pants up anymore to keep them out of the rings. So if this works out great then as the pocket allows I may do a short cage Direlle or in the back and a double D Rehler in the front but only if this works out good and I'm not going to go back to triple.

[lum gim fong]

Sorry for the typos. I was using the audio feature on my iPhone and forgot to manually edit before posting.

[Kieran J]

I recently put what is essentially the Riv package on my wife's updated city bike, using 170mm XD2 arms, 40/28t rings and a bashguard from Spa Cycles (http://www.spacycles.co.uk/m2b0s210p3655/SPA-CYCLES-Alloy-Chainguard-110-BCD). 

One thing to keep in mind about the XD arms is that they are quite wide in the Q-factor department. Noticeably wider than other crank arms I have around like the Ritchey Logics, older Deore models and a Sugino GP (or something) set from the 80's, and many others. Inconsequential to some, important to others. 

In addition, the 74mm position has spacers incorporated into the spider and are not the removeable donuts like other similar triple crankset designs. If you're wanting to also have the opportunity to run the arms as a straight 110mm double at some point, the XD arms are less than ideal.

KJ

On Thursday, August 31, 2017 at 3:42:28 AM UTC-4, lum gim fong wrote:

[Jay in Tel Aviv]

That's excactly what I did. Worked fine.
I do still use one of those silly reflector thingies to keep my pants out of the way on the rare occasion that I ride in long pants.