Hello all, and thank you for your time. I am new to old bikes, kind of like I was new to these bikes when they were new...but different.

Anyways, I found myself fulfilling my adolescent dream of buying a Columbus tubing Campy equipped bike last week. That's where the trouble started...ends up I got a case of "Oooh, shiny" and bought a franken-bike put together with a wide variety of Campy, Raleigh, Shimano, and 'other' parts. They don't work together so well.

Long story short I've sorted out most of the issues the way you work out problems when your middle aged; I threw money at it. I've got used 9 speed Mirage derailleur and shifter arriving soon (it's original group-set configuration) and that is where I am looking for some advice.

I am considering a new or newish wheelset and a variety of cassettes (Miche and Campy). What do you all recommend for a fit rider who has to climb a mountain pass to get anywhere? I've been running a 42:32 with some lung busting success on my older bike but now I have a three speed (52/42/32) in front. Here is a picture of the derailleur I will be using.

Whatever you go with, make sure that derailleur can wrap enough chain for the triple. That cage doesn't look very long.

Chain wrap: the total tooth difference between the largest chainring minus the smallest, plus the largest cog minus the smallest must be less that the derailleur's wrap capacity.

You need a long cage rear derailleur to run a triple with a big cogs in the rear. You can get away with a med cage if the largest rear cog is 26t. I'd recommend a long cage.