The perceived need to increase and maintain cadence during the pedal stroke, especially in triathlon, where energy conservation while cycling comes at a premium, has caused the issue of gearing to increase in importance. Especially gearing at slow speeds.

Cranks with smaller chain rings, therefore, are all the rage right now. Chief among these is FSA's Compact Drive cranks, with 50-tooth rings instead of the usual 52 or 53-tooth rings, and 34 or 36-tooth inner rings instead of the common 39s or 42s. This crank has been ridden to success, amid much notoriety, by Tyler Hamilton in grand tours last year.

It seems appropriate, then, with so many people changing crankets on their bikes, to write a primer on installing the crankset. This requires few tools and minimal skill. Here's how you do it.

The only specialty tool you need to install the crank is the spline tool from FSA, and that is for installing the bottom bracket, not the crank. This will only cost you a ten spot and is nice to have, because if your crank ever starts to creak or complain, it might be that your bottom bracket has become a slight bit loose. Having this tool is handy, it'll save you a trip to the bike shop. You just pull the cranks off and tighted the BB a bit. This tool will work on any ISIS-style BB, and likewise any other ISIS spline tool will work on an FSA bottom bracket. What won't work is a Shimano tool.

While you're buying tools, buy a crank extractor as well. Also, very cheap, just a bit more than the BB tool. I write this because you need this to uninstall your cranks—necessary if you want to get to the BB (Shimano's cranks feature self extracting bolts, but neither FSA's Octalink or ISIS cranks have self-extractors, you need a crank extractor tool). The same crank extractor will work for both kinds of spline BBs. Whether you're pulling an Octalink crank (Shimano standard) or ISIS crank (FSA, Truvativ, etc.) the extractor will work fine.

FSA's Compact Drive crankset does not necessarily need to be ISIS. You can buy it in an Octalink standard as well, in which case you could fit it onto a Shimano BB. I just happen to have FSA's ISIS BB and crank, and the photos adjacent are of the ISIS product.

The bottom bracket (above right) is shown complete, except for the threaded cup on the left side. It looks exactly like the cup on the right side, the "fixed cup" side, except that the bottom bracket has the fixed cup side built into the unit. Only the cup on the left side is removable, and it removes so that you can insert the unit into your frame.

Grease the Sh%t out of the BB shell before you install the BB. Or, grease the BB's threads (as I've done in the photo at the top of this article). As you look at the bottom bracket unit, it's right side reading, which means if you stand in the direction the bike is heading, the bottom bracket reads rightside up. Insert the BB from the drive side (the right side, the side your crank is on). Instead of trying to remember which way to turn the thing, just remember this: each side of the BB threads in reverse of the way you pedal the bike. This means, if you really must know, that the drive side screws in counter clockwise, and the left side clockwise.

Thread on the BB using the ISIS spline tool, into which I insert a half-inch drive ratchet, or any half-inch drive tool in your toolbox. Screw it in reasonably tight, the lip on the fixed cup side will abutt the BB shell.

Then insert the adjustable cup, a term I use with some imprecision because it isn't nearly as adjustable as it used to be when we were installing ball bearing style BBs and you had to get the BB adjustment perfect. You just screw in the adustable cup until the BB is reasonably snug—not tight—making sure the axle still spins freely. You'll know when you're near needing to stop threading, as you'll feel instant resistance when the adjutable cup hits the bottom bracket.

See those splines in the axle? Grease those before installing the crank.

The cranks install with a 7mm Allen wrench, and you must install this with a bit more force than you use when installing the BB. But not too much. FSA says between 29 and 36 foot pounds of torque. That's a wide range. Lots of room for maneuver. I choose 32 or 33 foot pounds, and I install it with a torque wrench set in that range. You don't need a torque wrench for this. I use one because I'm used to using one, again, because of the old days when the torque applied to a square hole BB was quite important. If you don't have one, just bolt the crank down pretty tight but not ridiculously tight.

That's it. No drama. Go riding.