What Does A R. Herse Crankset Give The Buyer?

If you want praise for Herse, go read Jan Heine and Bicycle Quarterly, maybe Velo Orange. I find some of the French praise at least conceivable, if not convincing, like the low trail frame geometry, but I don’t recall any mechanical arguments for the cranks, only aesthetic ones.

It’s mostly style points for money, although being able to run down to a 24T (assuming your front derailleur can handle that) is unusual. Getting different/replacement chain rings on that crankset would probably be expensive too though.

There is certainly a segment of the cycling community that loves the classic look/function of things like full metal fenders, handlebar mounted canvas bags, tan sidewalls, sprung leather saddles and matching bar tape, shiny chrome/silver parts, etc. as opposed to light aggressive racing carbon frames, deep dish wheels, etc.

The most recent equivalent to running a tiny front chainring would probably be to run a wide range cassette in the back. Cassettes with 10-42 or 11-46 are becoming more common, but even 12-30 gives a lot more range than 11-23 or 11-25. And not too many years ago lower geared compact cranks (50-34) began replacing more standard (53-39) cranks on many setups.

Yeah, they aren’t that light. SRAM Red would be a lighter setup and cheaper. Heck, SRAM Apex would probably be about the same weight if you don’t get a super light (ti) square taper BB.

As others have noted, the cassette is a better place to find range.

Relatedly, I just decided to do a 1×11 for my road bike when/as I upgrade it to hydro. 50t ring with a 10-42 or an 11-40 cassette depending on how much I want to spend to save a few grams (for the cassette/freehub body). A single 50t with an 11-40 is almost as much range as 34/50 with an 11-28.

Hydraulic disc brakes (vs cable actuated)

@hozn 146049 wrote:

Yeah, that’s right, am upgrading my road bike to Sram hydraulic brakes to replace the TRP Spyres I have on there now.

Got plans for the spyres? I’ve been thinking of upgrading from my bb7s…

I think the Herse crankset is one of the best looking crank sets I have I ever seen. If I had much more money time and space, I would have a retro touring bike with one on it. I would never use this bike for much more than riding around town.

However, if I needed to rely on my bike for real uses such as riding, commuting, or touring I would not consider it for even one second. Yes it is well engineered and will work well, but the lack of compatibility with standard chainrings is just foolish. Even if money is no concern, trying to find chainrings if you are far from home could be very difficult.

For touring, I suggest getting a 5 bolt crankset with the outer bolt diameter being 110 and the inner 74. You can find chain rings for those everywhere and in many many sizes. I have seen as small as 24 and as large as 54. Then ruin a wide by not crazy wide rear cassette. One with the smallest being 11 or 12 and the largest 30 or 32. Having the largest as 34-42 may sound good, but that can lead to a huge amount of other problems.

The best touring crank I know of, the Sugino XD500-T http://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/cranks/11074.html One problem, it does not work well with 10 or 11 speed rear systems. In those cases, I would suggest something like a modern Shimano MTB triple crank.

@Raymo853 146071 wrote:

For touring, I suggest getting a 5 bolt crankset with the outer bolt diameter being 110 and the inner 74. You can find chain rings for those everywhere and in many many sizes. I have seen as small as 24 and as large as 54. Then ruin a wide by not crazy wide rear cassette. One with the smallest being 11 or 12 and the largest 30 or 32. Having the largest as 34-42 may sound good, but that can lead to a huge amount of other problems.

What are the other problems? (Genuinely curious – I haven’t run anything larger than a 30t on road / 36t on MTB cassette.)

I do like the 5-bolt 110 BCD standard myself. Seems like plenty of options – 34T to 53T+ (and even one company makes a 33T)