I have a Dura Ace 7700 with 172.5 cranks on my Litespeed Vortex. I would like to move to 165mm cranks but finding them for the dura 7700 seems impossible. What are my options here since this is already 2×9? I run zipp 404 tubulars that are 9 speed. I am ok to move to 10 speed but I don’t think my 404s will be able to go to 11 speed.
Or should I scrap this entirely, wheelset and groupset all together and make it into a 12speed?
Suggestions?
by TR-struka
3 Comments
Can you get a different freehub for the wheels? I just swapped out my DA7700 for Ultegra r8000. Swapped my freehub body to 11 speed Shimano and my LeMond is set. I like the 11 speed much better. Doesn’t seem like a huge change but going from 53/39 to 52/36 is better too.
Single Speed!
Just purchase 165mm cranks and an appropriate bottom bracket. These cranks are cheap as chips, high quality and look similar to your old dura ace ones. If you don’t want to purchase from the UK look for Sugino RD2 cranks in 165mm. If you want to use smaller chainrings (110 bcd) look for Sugino XD-2 cranks. Both are available in 165mm crank lengths.
https://www.spacycles.co.uk/m8b0s109p3531/SPA-CYCLES-RD-2-Road-Cranks-%28pr%29
Dura ace 9-speed (7700) is incredibly high quality. Dura Ace 7800 hubs can only use dura ace cassettes ($$$$). Dura ace 7900 changed the shift cable routing to be beneath the bar tape shift quality and cable durability suffered. I can’t remember when things improved. If you’re okay with 9 speeds, I wouldn’t bother doing any ‘upgrades’.
If you want to upgrade I’d recommend staying with 10-speed so you can keep your current wheelset. 11-speed cassettes don’t fit on 10-speed hubs. If you want to splash some cash do whatever you want.