Last night I got two bigger chain rings on my front sprocket! Aren’t you as excited as me? Probably not, but let me explain why I am. My new shiny bike came with 18 gears (2 gears in the front and 9 gears in the back). The smaller front gear had 34 teeth and the larger front gear had 50 teeth. If you’re climbing hills, for instance, you want fewer number of teeth on the front gear to make it easier to make one rotation with your pedals. To go faster, you want more teeth on the front gear which is harder to turn but translates into fewer rotations needed to to turn the gears in the back. There is a math problem there concerning ratios and watts, but I don’t care too much about the math right now. The new chain rings I put on last night have 42 and 52 teeth. That means when I come to one of the Conshy hills, it will be harder to turn the cranks in the 42 vs 34 tooth gear, but when I’m in the 52 tooth gear, I will go faster than if I only had 50 teeth. Not too complicated. Ideally, I want a 54 tooth gear as the large gear and I’m OK with 42 for the small one. Unfortunately I can’t get 54 teeth on the crank set I have. 
The problem arises because I have a compact crank set. That means that the bolts that hold the chain rings and crank arms (the long arms that connect to the pedals) have a smaller diameter than traditional bikes. I have no idea why a compact crank set is the latest craze (apparently it is). A chain ring the size of 54 tooth needs a larger bolt diameter than I have. So in order to get to there, I have to change out the bottom bracket (the piece that goes through the bike that holds the chain ring and the crank arms together). I’m not willing to do that right now. The largest front gear I can get with a compact crank set is 53 teeth. When I find one as cheap as the two I just picked up ($25 for both), I’ll get it.
For now, I’ll be cranking away with my new bigger sprockets. Once I adjust the flux capacitor, I’ll be flying in no time!
