Upgrading to tripple
 

Hi All,

I am looking for some advice as I am relatively new to the road cycling game. (So please excuse me if I sound ignorant!)

I have a raleigh R300 racing bike with a double chainset, and have found that cycling in the relatively hilly area that I live, I cannot get into an low enough gear to get me up the steeper climbs. I am running a shimano tiagra double chainset 52/39 with a square-tapered bottom bracket, shimano 105 front derailler and shimano tiagra front shifters. I have been looking into upgrading to a tripple chainset but am being thoroughly confused as to what is compatible (and still relatively affordable!). Do I need to change BB, shifters and chainset plus deraillers or can I cut corners!? (Should I consider a compact chainset??)
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Guy

Yes (sort of), and yes.

To accomodate the triple chain ring, you need to have a longer axle, hence a new BB. The rear shifter will be ok, but you'll need a new triple shifter for the front. You may or may not need a RD, depending on if yours will suck up the chain slack when in granny gear. It is doable, but you need parts and labor. The FD will probably need to be changed.

A compact crank is almost the same as a good granny triple, and alot cheaper. All you need is the compact crank - everything else should be ok.

Also, what cassette do you have on the rear? You can get a lot of additional low gear by coupling a compact up front with a taller gear in the rear. For instance, if you have a 25t rear, swap it out for a 27 or 28t.

+1 for what bigbossman said! Check first and see if you can use a larger rear cassette. If so, you may not need to mess with the crank and chain-rings at all.

No need to change either shifter. Tiagra shifters are double/triple compatible. You will need the new crankset including chainrings, and both front and rear derailleurs for ideal shifting. You will need a new bottom bracket. Your old double rear derailleur will work with a triple if you stay out of gear combinations with the granny chainring and smaller cassette cogs. You will probably need to add some chain.

Al

This is interesting because I'm thinking about going from a triple to a double.

I assume that I just do the opposite of what is mentioned above more or less.

I switched my Peugeot Success & Puch to triples years ago without any other new parts. They work fine. (The BBs may or may not have been replaced - can't recall now.)

Depends on what you now have. What are your components?