Originally Posted by
E.S.
I have recently been re-infected by the N+1 virus ... I loved being able to spin up all the hills at fondo and club/friend rides with little effort. I know 30+ tooth cassettes exist, but it's still not as nice as a triple when it comes to finding the perfect gear and I don't think a triple would be a very nice option for a carbon/modern looking bike.
My first real road bike was triple, and I've had a couple 52/42/30 bikes which have excellent and practical spacing with a 12-25 cassette. Now I have 53/39 and 52/36. With a 10 speed 12-30 cassette you get a decent gear for tough hills, but not for real mountains, and the spacing is pretty good, but not tight like the 12-25 or 12-27. a 10s 12-32 cassette would have bigger jumps. The 11s 11-32 cassettes have weird spacing. If they made a shimano 12-32 I would be tempted to go 11s on my 53/39 cranked bike.
Someday I'm hoping to move somewhere with real mountains to justify building a triple with a 53/39/28 rings paired with 12-25 or 12-27. Some of the pros are using compact gearing with a 32 big tooth cassette for the HC climbs, so a regular guy using a triple to climb makes perfect sense.
Go for it.