Originally Posted by
urbanknight
Don't worry about that comment. Many triples have a 42 for the middle gear. That's obviously not because people running triples like to mash. It's because the lower gearing is already available in the small ring, so the middle ring can go up a little, which is also why I don't think it's anything new to use your small ring frequently. Otherwise, those guys with a 42 would be mashing it up everything until they decide to bail out on a far smaller gear.
A friend of mine got one of the first compacts in the area. this was several years ago. He used to brag about it and then say that he could climb anything with the compact and would rather die than have a triple like his wife's bike.
I had ridden with him and his wife several times and watched her closely. I looked over at him and said...your wife never shifts into the small ring in the fornt and her middle ring is a 42. He looked at me and i said....so....what's your small ring in the front? 34? he nodded....I then said....so your wife can actually push a harder gear than you eh?
So the whole time he was in the 34 tooth going up a mountain...she was still in the 42 with the same rear gearing.