big john

Surely you know that 11 speed groups use "brifters"?

btw, anyone you pass while in your 24x34 would have to be going mighty slow.

h2oxtc

@Biker395 thanks for the HTML tool. Bookmarked it. Nice.

I have several bikes with standard and compact double cranksets, and one bike with a triple. The crispness of shifting with the double over the triple chainring is enough to sway me to stick with doubles, and as of late (increasing age) the newer bikes all have 50-34's.

Joe Minton

Everyday bike: 22/32/44 & 11--36 (9 speed) [2006 Gary Fisher full suspension]
road bike: 22/42/45 & 11--36 (10 speed) [2013 Cannondale Synapse]
mountain bike: 22/40 & 11--36 (10 speed) [2015 Giant Stance 2]

I live in a hilly area (Thousand Oaks, CA); my typical six mile exercise loop includes 1350 feet of climbing & I sometimes need the 22x36 combination. A couple of weeks ago Nancy and I rode around the South rim of the Grand Canyon. The ride involved constant climbing @ 8300 feet; the 22x36 gearing was handy.

I am almost 74. I am 6'1" and weigh 225 pounds and am not in very good shape although slowly getting lighter & better. For now at least, I need the granny gearing. The Gary Fisher is my favorite bike & the triple chainring setups my first choice.

Joe

pdlamb

Sorry, I should have written that I don't know if you can go higher than 9 speeds with brifters while using a MTB crank. 9-speed Tiagra reportedly worked well, I know Deore does all right with a 26 small ring. Will the 11-speed brifters work with a front derailer that'll handle a 24-26 ring? I don't know.

On a really steep hill I'll often pass people either "tacking" back and forth across the road, or walking.

Wanderer

Making gearing changes via cassette, is still the most cost effecttive, and flexible, way to do it.....

VNA

It has nothing to do with age but:
What kind of cycling you practice, the terrain where you ride and your level of fitness!
A compact will be relatively close to a triple.

chasm54

This. A big cassette with a double can give you the range, but not the nice tight ratios. The triple is superior.

blt

The only time I pass people while in my 26x34 is when I'm riding a supported century (or slightly lesser mileage), where there are always a few people grinding VERY slowly when we're on a steep grade. Even more common on those rides, however, is when I pass by people who have given up and decided to walk up a very steep grade. I glance at their gearing and often think, "If I had that compact double, I'd probably be walking, too."

Not going anaerobic on the nastiest parts of rides sure helps me go a lot farther.

skye

I use a compact double with a 48-30 up front and 11-34 9-speed in back.

Any lower than that, and I'm walking.

fietsbob

Freewheels with 13t High gear cogs 50-40-24t triples are fine.. 52-42-26 too..

but they stay parked mostly, now that I rarely ride far and I love my step through like Bike Friday and Brompton. With their IGH.

When It Ices Up the Old MTB comes Out I Leave studded tires Bought in 1990 On.

Wanderer

I like that! Is it homemade, or factory?

roadweary

I just got a bike with a 50-34 compact double and while I've really enjoyed it, I did a hill several days ago where I wished I had just one more gear (11-32 cassette). I think a 48-30 might be perfect.

BluesDawg

The thing is, it's the result that matters, not the particular way you choose to achieve it. Triples, compact doubles, subcompact doubles, one-by, road components, MTB components...every option has advantages and disadvantages. Often it comes down to what components you are starting with and how much you want to keep of the current setup.

The more gears you have in back, the more likely that a double can work for you. 11 speed doubles can have similar range and spacing to 7 speed triples. If you already have a 10 speed build with brifters, going to a triple can be quite a bit more costly than increasing the range of the double, either by going with a cassette with larger cogs, even if it also means a different rear derailleur, or via smaller chainrings up front, even if it means a complete new crank.

LuckySailor

I recently turned 50, so now I can start contributing to these threads! I built up my bike last year with an Ultegra Hollowtech 6703 triple, and an XTR rear derailleur with an 11-36 cassette.

Wildwood 

I read most of the posts and a lot of good points have been made and questions asked about riding style, expectations etc.

I can only add that I have 4 roadies with Campy 10; two have compact doubles (50X34), two have triples (52/42/30). The triples are for rides where a bailout gear is appreciated and may be necessary, as I would be galled to be forced into walking. The compact doubles are for less arduous terrain. The Ti frame with triple has been my bike for multi-day trips. Cassettes vary from 11 - 23 to 13 - 29, and the wheels are interchangeable on all 4 bikes.

I vote for 'one of each in every bicycle fleet'.

In my experience (YMMV), doubles shift nicer than triples, doubles are a bit less trouble to maintain, and doubles have a narrower Q-factor, which I find noticeable and less desirable, but not problematic. Doubles also weigh grams less but that's not very significant to me.

At 64 years and not getting stronger (yet still trying to keep up on flat or hilly terrain), I want to know that when needed, Granny can be there to save my day. If the slope is beyond my 30f / 29r gearing, on a lightweight skinny tire roadie, then maybe I should be walking.

yetirider

Is that with standard road shifters?
I've been told the pull ratio is wrong and I can't add them, otherwise I would try a mtb cassette and mech on the back

BluesDawg

6703 = 10 speed. These shifters will work on a 10 speed cassette with 9 speed MTB RD, not with 10 speed Dynasis.

Wildwood 

If your question is directed at me - there is no such thing as 'standard road shifter'. Example = Campagnolo does not have the same pull ratio as Shimano, therefore not interchangeable. (Yes, I do know there may be some few exceptions and aftermarket products to minimize differences). I don't know the Shimano products well enough to say if road and mountain drivetrains offer shifter compatibility. But you could start a Thread - Can I put mtb derailleurs & cassette on my roadie? Explain what you want to do add a pics of pics and you will have better answers. Bicycle Mechanics or Road sub-Forum. The Road Forum can be a harsh environment - wear thicker skin and let some comments just slide.

clifftaylor

(Also from Derbyshire)

I run 46 x 34 front, and 12 - 27 rear, 10 speed; I do almost all my rides on the "big" ring only, but do use the small one for those sudden steep bits, or if I just want to twiddle for a while.
61 years old.

ButchA

I just did a "screen print" from that website on gear ratios, using my old '85 Fuji Del Rey as an example.
https://www.gear-calculator.com/

Note: There is an error on that gear calculator HTML5 website thing... There is no genuine selection for 27" x 1 1/4 tire. I mean, there is one for the ISO number (32-630), but the tire size in mm is wrong. As per Sheldon Brown's site and other sites, a 27" x 1 1/4 tire calculates out to 2161. If you manually type in 2161, the whole HTML5 java script website thing will recalculate properly.

Anyway, as you see, I am running the stock Sugino 42/52 crank, and the stock Suntour "Mighty-6" 14-30 freewheel. Read my comments that I also entered on the left side. I view my classic C&V setup like, "if it ain't broke, why fix it?". It works and works well for me...

yetirider

Looks like i need to man up, where about do you ride, i'm mainly riding round Buxton and through the Goyt valley.

grampa.sjb

To the OP: I've been using a triple on my road bike for quite awhile, and I love it! Say what you will about compacts, etc., but when you're facing a long, steep hill with aged legs and lungs, that low end granny does wonders.

DougG

One issue is that they're just not making triples any longer in the higher-end component lines. My old aluminum road bike has a 105 triple with a 12-27 cassette, and for extra climbing capability I switched the 30-tooth ring for a 24 (less than 1:1 low ratio). I do have to be careful shifting it, but have only dropped the chain once that I recall. As mentioned, I like this because I have the granny gear for steep climbs while maintaining the close-ratio shifting on the middle and big rings where I spend 99% of my time.

My newer carbon bike is a 105 compact double, originally with the same 12-27 cassette, but I switched to a 12-32 which is becoming popular on a lot of newer bikes. That should be enough, but just to be sure I'm thinking of going to a 12-36 for next season. The drawback of course is the increased gear spacing so that I sometimes feel like one gear is just a bit short and the next cog is a bit too tall. Always a compromise...

DougG

For the setup mentioned in my post above, I'm using a Shimano Deore MTB rear derailleur with my regular 105 10-speed shifters. The 10-speed components are interchangeable between road and MTB, but I believe that does not go for the 11-speed stuff.

BluesDawg

Are you sure your Deore rear derailleur is a 10 speed model (M953) and not a 9 speed model (M952 or lower)?

All Shimano road and MTB shifters and rear derailleurs up through 9 speed have the same cable pull and actuation ratios and can be mixed and matched freely. The Shimano 10 speed road shifters and rear derailleurs also use this standard and can also fit into that mix, so 9 speed rear derailleurs work well with 10 speed road shifters.

However, when Shimano came out with their 10 speed MTB system, called Dynasis, they changed the pull ratio and they will not work quite right when mixed with the road components.