Originally Posted by
fietsbob
The "market" is more the Product Managers for the various bike brand Importers specifying what goes on New Bikes at factories ,
Not individuals Buying components by the each for a specific Bike they are Building..
So its fashion choice , not a Function choice.. and truck load orders, of Pallets of cases is what matters to Manufacturers.
Plus all of the nonsense postings on this and similar bike forums telling us that triples shift badly and how "real men" don't ride triples. So, that dried up the demand for triples and we are left with the compact double as an inadequate substitute. Yes a compact or other wide range double can be configured to give a similar overall gear range as a triple but only by leaving huge gaps in the intermediate gears.