Road Cycling - Call me what you want but man am I glad I got a triple.

Ok so I have been out of biking for quite some time and when I was biking it was on a mountain bike. Recently I got back in the sadle and put some slicks on my mtn bike to ride to wok and do other rides. My area is all hills, many short but very steep and others longer and on the mtn bike I would just spin right up them, sure it was slow but I got up them all just fine. Well I finally got my new road bike on Friday ('03 Marin Argenta FWIW) and MAN am I glad this thing is a triple. After reading here for a week or so I was thinking of getting a double and feeling like a real roadie but that would have been a terrible mistake. On my first real ride (other than 6 miles home from the shop) I used the "granny" gear on 4 different occasions and even in it I couldn't spin at the same cadances I was doing on the mtn bike. Throw all of my prevuious cadance questions out the window it is totally different on the road bike. I am sure I will get stronger and in time maybe not need the triple anymore but I sure need it now. Now can't wait to get back on the bike tomorrow. :)

Preach on brother man!

My knees thank me for buying a triple. I have only used the granny gear once this entire summer, but that day, on that hill, I'm glad I had it.

Right on Grasschopper!!! I have used my granny gear twice in the time I've had my bike, but I was smiling while everyone else was puffing.

I'd call you "smart."

A "tripler" IS a "real roadie."

I don't use mine often, but when I need it, it is great.

I probably go into my small chain ring about once a month, but when I do, it is GREAT. I even have a 28 instead of the standard 30.

Ok so I have been out of biking for quite some time and when I was biking it was on a mountain bike. Recently I got back in the sadle and put some slicks on my mtn bike to ride to wok and do other rides. My area is all hills, many short but very steep and others longer and on the mtn bike I would just spin right up them, sure it was slow but I got up them all just fine. Well I finally got my new road bike on Friday ('03 Marin Argenta FWIW) and MAN am I glad this thing is a triple. After reading here for a week or so I was thinking of getting a double and feeling like a real roadie but that would have been a terrible mistake. On my first real ride (other than 6 miles home from the shop) I used the "granny" gear on 4 different occasions and even in it I couldn't spin at the same cadances I was doing on the mtn bike. Throw all of my prevuious cadance questions out the window it is totally different on the road bike. I am sure I will get stronger and in time maybe not need the triple anymore but I sure need it now. Now can't wait to get back on the bike tomorrow. :)

You will quickly find yourself using it only to "bail out"...but what's cool is that if you have a 13-26 in the back like I do, you can climb in a 42-26 and actually be pushing bigger gears than some folks in their 39-25. So you can choose the workout...I'm glad I've got it because the hills are BIG here...and right now, I'm just putting miles in my legs...

Next year, I'll just race with a fixed speed...lol

Good job! Do what you have to do and don't listen to anyone telling you how you should ride.

...but what's cool is that if you have a 13-26 in the back like I do, you can climb in a 42-26 ..
you're not concerned with bending links/teeth? It doesn't rub against the front derail?

Good job! Do what you have to do and don't listen to anyone telling you how you should ride.
Ha ha ha... you obviously use a tripple... It's easy to see who uses one by the defensive remarks made. Just get a mountain bike.........

I have a double.

But fwiw I can tell the HUGE difference coming from my mountain bike...in my easiest gear it feels like something in the third ring on my mtn bike. So, although I can muscle my way up the hills... I can't spin them like I used to. Which is what I'm working on now.

Near the end of my ride today I decided to show this one hill who's boss...in gear 20 after coming down a ok hill and hitting this nasty mother I went all the way up with no downshifting till i plateaud...

My knees hurt :( But that's ok...I'm in pretty good shape between being back "into" cycling now and karate.


Still...

I don't want a triple, except when I'm climbing these hills lol. Be nice to spin them once in a while. And if your not racing who cares?

Chad

Yeah cool right on... I only use my 30 twice a day but when I do use it... I would use it more often if I wasn't such a stud... Don't worry you'll be monster like me soon!

Ha ha ha... you obviously use a tripple... It's easy to see who uses one by the defensive remarks made. Just get a mountain bike.........ClevelandGuy,

You evidently don't have mountains where you live. Tell you what! Come out here to CA and I'll show you some REAL hills! I'd bet you'd have a hard time finishing one of our club rides! You flatlanders crack me up!

Cheers! SteveE

SteveE, just ignore guys like ClevelandSteamer :D

PS: Colorado has the real hills! ;)

SteveE, just ignore guys like ClevelandSteamer :D

PS: Colorado has the real hills! ;)Nah! Colorado has long grades! :p C'mon out to the Santa Cruz Mtns. where the hills, though not as long, are plenty steep.

People like CG don't bother me except for their ignorance. We had a good ride today. Climbed over 6,000 ft. in 66 miles. Met Jobst Brandt at the top of one of the climbs. Had a couple of pro's, a former women's world champ, and some current and former CA state champs, and some Cat 3 racers along on the ride. None of them look down their noses at my triple.

SteveE

PS: Colorado has the real hills! ;)

Um, We have real hills in Montana too!

My San Remo has a triple, but 32 teeth is not much of a granny. I have yet to actually need it. Now on a loaded tour, it will be a great asset!

Tripples are the best.

The only rule I live by is: "Don't get off the bike."

That's why I have a tripple.

I was doing an experiment on today's ride. I'm thinking about changing to a 11-21 cassette from the 13-26 I have now, figuring I'd rather have a close range cassette. So I limited myself to a 30x21 combination to see if it would be low enough. I made it up an 18% pitch, which was the steepest part of the ride, OK. Mercifully, this section is less than two-tenths of a mile. I'm going to see if I can borrow a cassette this size and try it for awhile to see if it works, long term.

you're not concerned with bending links/teeth? It doesn't rub against the front derail?

Haven't had any problems at all...that's just middle ring/big cog...now I won't mess with big ring, big cog

Haven't had any problems at all...that's just middle ring/big cog...now I won't mess with big ring, big cog

Yea from either the small or big ring I will only do half the cassette but in the middle ring I will do the whole thing. Don't seem to have any problems so far either. Taking the Marin to the shop today to get the BB adjusted (I hate creaky BBs) and to have the front adjusted as it kicked me off the bottom ring a couple times and had a hard time going from small ring to middle ring.

Do love this road bike though. :D

I'm shopping for a road bike right now. I have been thinking about the whole double vs tripple thing. The manager at my LBS said that even though around here, NE, we don't really have any huge hills he always gets tripples in case he gets a chance to biking in CO, CA, Italy ect. And you never know when your going to hit a wall and just need to spin for a while. So I'm getting a tripple!

Ok so I have been out of biking for quite some time and when I was biking it was on a mountain bike. Recently I got back in the sadle and put some slicks on my mtn bike to ride to wok and do other rides. My area is all hills, many short but very steep and others longer and on the mtn bike I would just spin right up them, sure it was slow but I got up them all just fine. Well I finally got my new road bike on Friday ('03 Marin Argenta FWIW) and MAN am I glad this thing is a triple. After reading here for a week or so I was thinking of getting a double and feeling like a real roadie but that would have been a terrible mistake. On my first real ride (other than 6 miles home from the shop) I used the "granny" gear on 4 different occasions and even in it I couldn't spin at the same cadances I was doing on the mtn bike. Throw all of my prevuious cadance questions out the window it is totally different on the road bike. I am sure I will get stronger and in time maybe not need the triple anymore but I sure need it now. Now can't wait to get back on the bike tomorrow. :)

I have a tripple also and STILL had to walk up a couple of hills that were just impossible to climb. It's more important to save you knees than repairing them with surgery! That can be very costly and permanent damage never goes away.

alright, OCDOpie's gotta ask, what's with so many of y'all typing "tripple"? You're making us look bad to the 'doubble' crowd :D

alright, OCDOpie's gotta ask, what's with so many of y'all typing "tripple"? You're making us look bad to the 'doubble' crowd :D

The same folks who want to "loose" weight, get "advise" and "advice" people, and use correct "grammer!" :D

I look at it as 'carrying your courage on your crankset'. I can take that hill, but will I have to resort to wimp gear?

Hey, it's your bike - put whatever you want on it, and to hell with what the poseurs think. The only person I need to impress anymore is myself.

LOVE my tripple. I haven't walked a hill yet thanks to her!! I live in the Lone Star State, and it's not as flat as you'd think. It's certainly not as flat as I used to think before riding two wheeles instead of four! There is no shame in going to the granny gear (in my opinion) If you can hammer a killer hill in a double...more power to ya...I'd love to see those legs in action. Someting poetic about a body in motion!!

The same folks who want to "loose" weight, get "advise" and "advice" people, and use correct "grammer!"

Thats beecauze thay ain't never learned no good english!

Thats beecauze thay ain't never learned no good english!


Careful now, Abdullah, we speak 'merican here in the good ole US of A.

I love my Triple

SteveE, just ignore guys like ClevelandSteamer :D

PS: Colorado has the real hills! ;)


Or come to North Carolina where "Da Man" rides our hills.

My personal preference is for the triple but I only use the small chainring for climbing.It totally depends on what you want to get out of it.I certanly am not embarassed about using it infact i preach ride up as slow as you can that way you make it to the top

Hmmm, ain't callin' you anything.
I ride single 38t ring, I'm 39.
I have big ol' legs.
My knees blow once in a while, for a day if I drop the seat and go jumping.

Stronger, faster, better- you bet.

The granny gear got chopped off with bolt cutters, too lazy to pull the crank.

2 snips and unbolt. :D

LOVE my tripple. I haven't walked a hill yet thanks to her!! I live in the Lone Star State, and it's not as flat as you'd think. It's certainly not as flat as I used to think before riding two wheeles instead of four! There is no shame in going to the granny gear (in my opinion) If you can hammer a killer hill in a double...more power to ya...I'd love to see those legs in action. Someting poetic about a body in motion!!

a friend just moved here (san francisco) from huston and the first ride we took her on was to the top of mt. tam...2,800 ft above sea level, she did great with a double and a 29 cog in the rear. the right gearing does not depend on double or triple cranks. the thing I don't like about a triple is the 53/42/30 chainrings. a 53/39/30 make more sense and makes the 30 a true bail out gear. I have just gone to a compact double, 48/34 and with 11x25 cogs the gearing is perfect for my riding style around the hills of the bay area. ;)

a friend just moved here (san francisco) from huston and the first ride we took her on was to the top of mt. tam...2,800 ft above sea level, she did great with a double and a 29 cog in the rear. the right gearing does not depend on double or triple cranks. the thing I don't like about a triple is the 53/42/30 chainrings. a 53/39/30 make more sense and makes the 30 a true bail out gear. I have just gone to a compact double, 48/34 and with 11x25 cogs the gearing is perfect for my riding style around the hills of the bay area. ;)


Buy a 32 and slap it on for mountain, the dh guys on 40+ lbs bikes run 32t up hill.

Buy a 32 and slap it on for mountain, the dh guys on 40+ lbs bikes run 32t up hill.
really? I find that very hard to believe any, but select DHers, spinning 32t up on their rigs, let alone actually riding their bikes uphill at all.

I've yet to be brave enough to try climbing up Mt Tam, I'll stick to the Alto grade twice a day (300 feet of climbing is far more manageable :)

I live in Florida, no hills here, and I have a triple. I never use it,
but if I go someplace or feel like using it, it's always there. Never hurts
to have something to fall back on if you happen to need it.

38t gear is the small chainring

as can be seen from the attached image none other than
Jacques Anqutil rode a triple, so your in good company.

Photo "borrowed" from the Horton Collection,
Jacques Anquetil Tour of Lombardia, 1961

Marty

Just curious, but did riders like Anquetil have specialized stage bikes like the riders do today, or did they have to more or less rely on a single configuration to do everything?

I am an uphill slug with no hope of improvement, so in NTX I use 53-39-28 and 11-21. Great, teeny-tiny gear splits.

I went to Colorado to do some pass riding, and I took the same rings and 12-27, which was a little limiting going downhill. Need the 11T. On that section of 10% grade after Denny's Creek (?) on Cottonwood Pass (Monday?), I felt like I ran out of gear because the steep part was so long, and with Mount Evans staring me in the face for the following Saturday, on Friday morning I shamelessly bolted on 48-36-24, and going up Mount Evans I did not run out of gear. Colorado gets you twice, first sucking the power out of you with no air at altitude, and then with moderately steep grades on the popular passes. RMNP out of Estes Park on a weekday is more fun than I had read. With the 35mph speed limit inside the park, even if the cars cheat up to 45, you are still with them, staying warm in the radiator flow-through on the way back to Estes Park.

The advantage of a triple over a double is that you can have 9 (or 8, depending on crossover prudence) more gears filling in the same range. That means you come closer to having the best gear for you. The disadvantage is the 9mm (?) wider pedal spacing.

where'd you get a 53-39-28 crankset? Did you buy individual rings?

Somedays I could use the 39, but with my bad knee, there are times where even the 30 is bit painful.

With a T.A. Zephyr 110/74mm 185mm arm crankset from Peter White, I got individual chainrings. The new T.A.s will have interchangeable spiders like Shimano MTB cranks, so it will be possible to get into the 130/74 rings with the long arms. Is there an Ultegra "racing" triple with 53-39-30 rings yet? Can't remember.

I thought I was tough enough, but when I got to Colorado I needed one more low gear, so I got the 24 and shrank everything else to keep the derailleur working. I was disappointed, but I was only there for one week. Couple more weeks and maybe I would have been two gears higher.

Yes, it is a pain in the butt that the nominal Shimano FD capacity is only 22T, so Shimano only makes 52-42 (or 39)-30T. So many people are so much better off with a 28T. I'm willing to push the capacity to a 25T difference, but that's my limit. I know some people claim to have had success to 29T difference, but I think the leverage is hard on the parallelogram. I wish Shimano would make an honest 26T front derailleur. I know if they engineered one, it would probably work better than the Ultegra I stretch to 25T. I suppose MTB microdrive trends work against this, but I hear road bike sales are up.....

The advantage of widely spaced chainrings is that the next gear is an easy cog shift away with a narrow-spaced cogset. You could do the same thing with narrowly spaced chainrings and a widely spaced cogset, but then numerically adjacent gears are more likely to require a cog shift and a ring shift, which takes longer and more thought (not good for sprinting, especially uphill) and is detrimental to the quality of the experience. Concentrate more purely on cycling, not on shift patterns.

38t gear is the small chainring

My only chainring. 38 to a 10t rear is 29? mph flatland @100 rpm.

I have a 12 and the 10 cog is on the desk with the lockring. 10-38 is fast for a mtb flatout.

well..for me.

I have nothing against a triple. But in my experiance when I had it I used it now that I don't I don't. We ride some pretty big hills here.

I have a triple. It's ok ... I don't think the 42 middle ring is very useful. I think if I had gotten a 39 middle, it would have been better.

Just curious, but did riders like Anquetil have specialized stage bikes like the riders do today, or did they have to more or less rely on a single configuration to do everything?


In that era they rode the same bike, only changing wheels for mountain stages, time trials with different gearing.

Good for you. When I bought my TREK 1400 back in 1992, I was "talked" into a double and regretted it almost right away. Finally decided I like a triple and have been riding triples ever since. I'll never go back.