Originally Posted by
black_box
My cross crankset at 46/36 with an 11/28 in back is great. 46 is easy enough to start from a stop and 36 can be run up to a reasonable cruising speed (it runs out with wind/downhill assistance and some effort).
I see triples making a well-deserved comeback once everyone realizes compact doubles and wide range cassettes are a huge tradeoff for a few extra grams and a few extra seconds of front derailleur tuning. Having a 42T middle ring for most terrain plus a big ring in the 50-53T range AND a 24-30T bailout ring for the steep stuff is still the ideal crankset in my opinion.