Don't shy away from a triple for the sake of appearance or geekitude or whatever causes people to do that. I rode with doubles for years, but a friend moved to the Caribbean and left me an old Trek tourer with a triple. I hated it for about a day, but I live in big mountains and after a few weeks I converted one of my other rides, too. If you don't need the granny, you don't have to use it, but it's sure nice to have when you do. And you can pretty much ignore claims that it screws up the shifting. Anybody who can't shift the front derailleur should probably buy a car.