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Old 07-09-19 | 07:07 AM
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J.Higgins
2-Wheeled Fool
 
Joined: Sep 2016
Posts: 2,346
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From: New Hampshire

Bikes: Surly Ogre, Brompton

Originally Posted by HillRider
I have four bikes, all 10-speed cassettes used with triple cranks so it certainly could be done, at least in the past.

The most suitable triple road crank was the Shimano FC-5703 105-level HTII model. It came geared 50/39/30 but had a separate 74 mm granny bolt circle so you could (and I did) replace the 30T granny with a 26 or 24 T chainring. The Tiagra FC-4603 was also a 50/39/30 triple but the granny ring was bolted to the middle chainring and 30T was the smallest that would fit. These are no longer in production so you have to find them used or NOS. Shimano still offers 3x10 cranks in their Trekking groups but these are typically available only from European dealers. Here is one example: https://www.bike24.com/p2224136.html

Shimano and Campy have pretty much abandoned triple cranks for their current road groups and SRAM never made one. Even their MTB groups have few triple cranks available. The current "craze" is double or single cranks paired with wide or super wide ratio cassettes. You can get a real low low and high high gear with these at the expense of big gearing gaps in the middle. Otherwise Suguino triples are you best choice.

The other problem is finding triple indexing front brifters. Campy and Shimano made 10-speed compatible triple front shifters and front derailleurs but none of their current 11+-speed groups offer them and they may not work well with other make cranks. One excellent work-around is friction front shifting via bar-end levers or Gevenalle brake lever mounted shifters. I have the Gevenalle shifters on all my bikes and find them very easy to use, versatile and reliable.
Thanks, Hillrider.

I'm thinking that Gevenalle shifters, Sugino crank, and 10sp driveline is how I'll go. Do you have any recommendations on how big of a cassette that I can run with this setup? I'm probably going to use a road RD and FD, possibly with a goatlink. Do you think this'll work?
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