Originally Posted by
PeteHski
You have to be kidding right? Triples are only cheap because they are obsolete....
Triples are certainly not obsolete. Sugino sells some nice cranks, and the Velo Orange Grand Crux is beautiful. Rivendell also sells a couple different ones. Rivendell uses a triple on the Atlantis and you can get many of their bikes built with a triple. There are other examples of high-end bikes that come with one, and a thriving market for aftermarket triple cranksets.
A lot of us prefer a triple. Between my wife and I we have 7 bikes, and they all have the granny gear. We don't use it very often, but it's very nice to have that ultra-low range once in a great while. There's no downside that I can see. Front derailleurs are pretty foolproof and easy to set up.