Originally Posted by
cachehiker
I've been riding a 50/36 with a 9-speed 11-23 cassette for years. It's just seems too darn easy to spin out a 34t.
Anyway, I've always maintained the principle advantage is better front shifting for spinners like myself that would otherwise be stuck with a triple.
My 50-40-30 triple shifted better than the 50-34 compact I replaced it with after wearing out my big ring. I haven't a clue whether that's the smaller difference between rings or a difference in pins/ramps.
Some triples can't be trimmed to be noise free, although that's a shifter problem not a triple problem (first and second generation Campagnolo ergo levers use 7 of 12 clicks for triple cranks and current production Ultrashift levers have 6)