Originally Posted by McBTC

Back in the day they used to call triples 15-speeds because bikes had 3 rings and 5 cogs (with the largest at 28t). By that logic a modern compact crankset and 11-speed freewheel is a 33-speed.

In the real world, with a single double shift --e.g., from 34-16 to 50-22 -- a 50/34T compact combined with a 11x32, 11-speed freewheel provides 15 fairly evenly spaced gears (beginning with nearly a 1-to-1 which is about all that most road bikers will ever need).

That compares to ~11 gears on the traditional "15-speed;" and, then... not without a whole lot of double shifting to achieve an evenly spaced sequence of gears.

There's certainly nothing wrong with triples. But, anyone who has had as many as I have knows that they had a lot more going for them in the past than they do now. This was my first triple: