I went with a friend to get a new road bike. He walked out of the LBS with an 05 Allez from Specialized. It has the Sora 8 speed group set up. We went for a spin to dial in his fit and he kept rubbing his chain on the front drl. So I told him not to cross his chain over too many of the cog. Then I noticed the following:

1. On the big ring he could only access the first 3 cogs (12,13,14) then rub on the 4th cog.
2. On the middle he could not access the 1st cog. That was fine, but he could only access the 2nd to 4th cog then rub.
3. On the 3rd ring he could access the last 4 cogs.

I took the bike to the shop to see if it were tuned up right. The LBS guy told me the following:

1. Triples are for mountain bikes really and you have to live with the short range of each ring. I told him that if he were right then the bike with a triple and 8 cogs would only yield like 11 functional gears if you add them up. 3 for the front ring, 4 for the middle, and 4 for the last.

How many functional gears are there for a triple?