I've been riding triples for decades, before and after my racing days of the latish '70s. My racing bike was a double 53-42 x 13-19 5-speed FW. I loved the gearing! But I was strong enough to get up almost everything in New England on that 42 x 19. After racing I had a custom made and geared it with the same gearing except added a 28t inner ring. Same sweet gearing only I could now climb anything as a non-racer. As I got older and moved out West where hills are considerably larger, I took advantage of the coming additional cogs and added to that same basic freewheel first a 21, then a 12, the went 9-speed 12-23 or 25 or 28. (I am now 62 had have had some injury issues and do occasionally use that 28-28.)

I ride mostly the middle ring, that 42. For me, flat ground riding at less than flat out on the 42 x 14, 15, 17, 19 is simply right. If I can get a 16 in there, better. And the 18, better still. The triple allows those gears to always be on the bike. Those ratios are always decent chainlines. So life is good. And it I do some serious climbing? Those same cogs in back work really well with the 28 in front. Plus climbing and not being in your lowest gear and having the next one up a small step is sweet. Road levels out a little and you shift up. Steepens? Go down. Each time you shift, you put a pace change in that the guy beside you with his lowest geat and a three tooth jump to his next cannot match. You wear his legs out . It's fun!

Now, I am still on 9-speed. A triple gains less with an 11-speed. And the 11-speed has a further advantage. Lighter weight. The bike by say 300 grams. The wallet by considerably more. (This if you start from scratch as a triple which basically costs the same as a double. It is just changing from one to the other that is expensive.)

All my non fix gear bikes are triples. I spent less than a year on a 50 something x 39 and hated it. Going to a bigger jump as a double always seemed like it would be worse still so compacts never interested me at all.

Ben