Originally Posted by sstorkel;15614218
In my mind, a [I
road[/I] triple only makes sense if you're going to swap the largest and smallest chainrings for lower gearing (ex: 30/39/52 -> 26/39/48) or if you're super-sensitive to gear spacing and strong enough to run a tight-ratio racing cassette (ex: 30/39/52 + 11-25 cassette gives a 32.4 gear-inch granny). If you already own a bike equipped with a double crank and an indexed shifting system (STI, DoubleTap) a compact double crank and wide-range (11-28, 11-32) cassette, perhaps combined with some additional training, are probably more cost effective than switching to a triple...
I would go for the lower gearing on the triple, otherwise as you said, the pay off isn't significant enough.
Additional training may get me a little further but I think I have to face the fact that I simply am not a strong rider. Fifty six years of sitting on my rear getting obese is not a good place to start. I have two years of riding, am now of normal weight, but I am still the last one up the hill.
What I need to think about is whether to move up the date where I get a custom build and just leave the Madone alone. Or, whether to buy a group set, put it on the Madone, and then move it to the custom frame in a year. And, I need to talk to my fitter about my "narrow stance."