sch

The most recent variants from Shimano and SRAM provide compacts with derailleurs suited to 11-32 and 11-34 11 spd, which basically match what
30t CW and 11-28 cassette give you on 10spd triples. There is the kludge of double shifting CW and cassette unless you are on a steep hill but
DI-2 solves that problem as well. Not recommending this but this is the direction bikes are going both road and ATB. For me a 30T CW and a
triple solves any hill I can pedal up. But my next cassette will be 12-30 10 spd when the 9spd cassette wears out and I junk the 9spd brifters.

bradtx

Mithrandir, Even when you become thinner a triple can be useful.

Whatever the motivation for compact doubles is/was, they aren't as flexible for varied terrain as a triple. They seem more suited to those riders that are in hilly areas who are mostly either climbing or descending with few flat land stretches. Finding the right gear to deal with flat land headwinds can take some patience, however.

Perhaps due to the touring riders there are several compact triples available. A 26-36-46 would work nicely with an unloaded roadie. While not terribly popular outside of the touring niche, a set of bar end shifters and standard brake levers work very well. I used bar ends on my last roadie build even though I have a set of perfectly good and matched set of integrated levers in the parts bin. The point is no matter how you build your bike there'll be parts to keep it in service for many years to come.

Brad

wvridgerider

I have the whole set up that I can part with, Ultegra front brifter, Utegra crank with BB (octalink) and a front derailluer. The front derailluer is 10 speed though and I dont believe it matters. Send me a PM and I can get some pictures to you if you are interested.

Airburst

I'd add my vote to these as well - setting up triples with indexed shifting is a complete PITA, and front friction shifting would allow you to completely eliminate that.

Tim_Iowa

Agree. Especially if you are changing the rings from the stock size.

Modern Shimano front index shifters don't move as much on each shift (compared to campy, or most older triple setups). They partly rely upon the ramps and pins on the chainrings to "pull" the chain. And those ramps and pins are designed for a specific combo of rings (which is why some rings are labeled 50/39 or 39/30).

This means that you should stick with the stock ring sizes, which are all 50/39/30 for their modern offerings.

Alternatives:
Campagnolo -- front shifters aren't indexed; you click till you get what you want. But they still are happiest with the stock ring combos.
Friction -- bar-ends, thumb shifters, downtube, or Gevenalle. Shift as much or as little as you want, trim on the fly, etc. Perfectly happy with any ring combo you can come up with. MTB/Touring triples offer combos like you describe.

You are correctly worried about Shimano's triple offerings. They've hamstrung their front STI shifters so much that people don't want what they offer. Instead of improving the product so people want it, they just stop offering it.

Personally, I use bar-ends / Campy 8 speed Ergos on my 2 triple-equipped bikes.

ThermionicScott 

+1. I have almost no hands-on experience with indexed front shifting, but it sounds yucky to me.

OTOH, this got me thinking: what if someone made a couple set of brifters that did the micro-ratchet thing like Campy's fronts? None of the big 3 would want to do it, of course, but that's the kind of thing that might get me into brifters.

dwmckee

Correction - Shimano is LEADING the market here, trying to force a shift that many of us do not want. This allows them to cost reduce component groups. Wait a few years and they will be announcing new high performance triples again!

HillRider

Uhh, isn't Campy one of the "big 3"? They have offered multi-step ratcheting front shifting for many years but recently reduced the number of steps in their front brifters from 9 to 6. They still offer a fair range of trim positions but not as many as they used to. That said, friction front shifting offers infinitely small adjustment position options and nothing is more adjustable than that.

CliffordK

The triples are still very much alive in the MTB market.

Going with a 10 or 11 spd, and fairly big sprocket, one may not truly need a triple, especially if using a 110bcd compact crank. 33 gears is just TOO MANY.

Personally I don't like the aggressive contours on the inner side of the Shimano front deraileurs, and have had troubles up-shifting with them, so I'd choose a SRAM or similar dérailleur over the Shimano dérailleurs. But, you're right that a lack of shifter support could be the downfall of the triples for use with drop-bar bikes (road/cyclocross).

dr_lha

Can't say I buy this argument. Until the most recent revision, Shimano made 105 Triples. How many production bikes came with a 105 triple up front?

EDIT: I found one, and it didn't even come with a 105 crank, but rather a non-series mid level crank. The Specialized Roubaix Elite SL4 105 Triple.

dynaryder

FTFY. I play with triples all the time at my clinic. I don't have any issues. In fact,it's no different than setting up a double;you set the small and big rings,and the middle is taken care of by the shifter.

LesterOfPuppets

doubles and 1x are trickling down quickly in MTB land. Spend more than $720 on a Trek XC bike in 2015 and you'll be getting a 2x10 or 1x11 drivetrain.

dr_lha

1x11 is the new hot item in the MTB market. Triples may still be prevalent, but the fashion is moving away from them.

Raiden

Seriously. Holy moly guys, I've never seen so many people with issues with Shimano road derailers before, and I've adjusted thousands of them. If you want to say that you get funky shifting from your custom chainring choices, I'm not gonna disagree. 50/34 doesn't shift as well as 53/39? Again, no disagreement (I ride compact, the difference in a clean shift is barely noticeable, a non-issue to me). But a Shimano triple shifts just as beautifully as a Shimano double. If yours doesn't... well, go watch more youtube videos or something, just quit the baseless railing on the hardware.

I don't like triples, but my gripe with triples is the fact that a whole pile of those gears are redundant Shifting from one end of the range to the other, in very small steps, jumping to the next chainring one time each, still only takes about 17 or 18 gear combinations in total on a '30 speed' drivetrain (In comparison, with 2x10, you use 15 or 16 gear combinations to perform the same task). You can shift more if you want, but it's superfluous. 53x25 and 30x14, and 53x23 and 30x13 are identical, within the tiniest percent- have fun shifting across those combinations, like 8 or 9 clicks each way for less than one gear-inch. If you feel like making a TINY change in gearing in the middle of the range, sure, you can, but you're typically jumping a chainring, then jumping three or four cogs on the cassette, which is a bummer for a tiny change in ratio.

What a standard road triple has over a double is a lowest gear ratio about 10% lower than a compact crank's lowest gear (assuming no mountain bike rear derailer/cassette augmentation). If you're an average rider riding a ton of hills, it's the better choice.

edit: 3x7/3x8 and maybe 3x9 make sense for all around gearing, but in 10 speed and forward a double is the way to go.

rydabent

Go with a triple in some manner. Every bike I have had since what was going to be my last bike in 1986 had a triple. I now have my two "last" bikes, altho one is a trike. My Rans LWB recumbent and my Terratrike both have click shift triples and they work great.

I still feel that my going with a triple clear back in '86 was a good idea. With a triple you can go almost anywhere.

ThermionicScott 

Of course -- what I was envisioning was front and rear brifters that used micro-ratcheting "friction"...

HillRider

OK, Retroshift has a "brifters" set with friction levers both front and rear instead of friction front/indexed rear. Look here and scroll down to the "Audax" version: Cyclocross Shifters

Friction is about as "micro-ratcheting" as you can get. Index rear shifting required specific incremental movement to shift properly and, done right, there is no need to trim between steps as there is with front shifting.

hybridbkrdr

I read Stronglight cranks are made by Sugino. In any case, I know you can get Stronglight bottom brackets at places like xxcycle.

ThermionicScott 

Yep, Retroshift/Gevenalle is about as close as we're likely to get to what I'm envisioning. It's fine.

himespau 

Kelly take-offs are another option that'll get you pretty close. As will sun tour command shifters (if you can find some).