Originally Posted by
daoswald
A triple makes very little sense if you live among flat terrain. If you live in hilly terrain, it can be pretty useful.
I understand that 11 speed rear mechanics can somewhat offset the need, if the front chainrings are really carefully chosen. Where I live there are stretches of road that go on for several miles at 10% grade. Being able to drop to 30t/30t is pretty nice. And there are stretches that go on for miles relatively flat. With a SS front mech, and 11sp rear, I would either give up low range, or high range, or tight gearing for the flats. A compact might be ok in front, but then there's even more front shifting than with the triple, since the gaps tend to be larger.
I disagree that 11 (or 12) speed cassettes have offset the need. More gears doesn’t equate with greater range. It just more steps. Really wide range cassettes have helped but with the current fashion of going to 1x and 2x systems, there are compromises that have to be made. The trade offs aren’t worth the convenience in my opinion. 1x systems, for example, give you the choice of a good high gear or a good low gear but you can’t have both. That may work well for mountain biking on a short loop or at the local skills course but if you ride to the trail or range further afield, the 1x begins to have severe limitations.
The 2x systems may have the range of a triple but they have a giant hole in the middle of the shift. Dropping from the large outer ring to the smaller inner ring means a large increase in cadence to keep up with the change in the gear ratio or it means shifting two or three times on the rear cassette to find a gear with a comfortable cadence. I recently followed a guy on a compact double that was hunting and pecking to find the right gear up a slight hill while I just cruised by him with just a minor change in gearing.
My biggest complaint around triples is the difficulty in getting them dialed in. But once you do, they're fine for mortals. Wear proper biking attire, or ankle bands.
People say this all the time and I’ve never found it to be true. I have 8 triples on my bikes, 4 on my wife’s bikes and 5 on bikes that my daughter owns. Eleven of the 17 bikes are at my house and 6 of those bikes are 1000 miles away at my daughter’s house. All of them shift flawlessly from the time they are installed. My daughter’s bikes get ridden all the time and I’m not there to make any adjustments. She has never really needed any nor do my bikes...any of them.