Thanks for dropping by my thread.

This summer my best mates Dad past away after a long battle with Leukemia. John was a huge Tour fan and the only thing that got him upright over the two years being bed ridden was the Tour de France.

So as a memorial to John, Ben and Me and who ever is up for it are cycling Day 17 of this Years tour next summer on John's Anniversary. Yep one of the harder days!

Well the question out there is this.. I have a Spesh Allez Ellite with a double 105 rig.. Now I'm not a hill climber ( not yet anyhow ) and I'm looking at putting a triple on to haul my arse up the hills.

The 105 Shifter at the mo is Double only so would need to be changed to the new version that handles a triple.

Now the real nightmare is the cost! I heard that I might need new shifters new chain set new chain new bottom bracket new cassette!

Do I buy a new bike!

Any help on the ideas of costs and conversions would be greatly appreciated.

many thanks for any advice... Simon

I'm actually selling a set of triple 105 shifters, ultegra triple front derailleur and long cage 105 rear derailleur. This might be all you need. I've got a TruVativ Triple crank also, which will work with the Shimano components.
Let me know if you are interested.

What about just renting a bike with the triple when you get there? Saves you the hassle of converting and of flying with a bike.

Have you considered a Compact?

he'd still need a new long cage rear derailleur for that....

how about a 27 on the back? 39-27 should be low enough if you train up on it....

Cheapest answer is get a wide range cassette (i.e. 11-32, or 11-34) and a mountain bike long cage rear derailleur. You'll need a new cassette, new chain, and new rear derailleur. Doable for $150.


You can use a long cage Shimano 105 RD with an 11-32 cassette, although its technically beyond the specifications for the derailleur.

Does your bike have a 10-speed drive train or something older? The 10-speed stuff is much more expensive, so you can save money by going to 8 or 9 speed.

This may be complicated if the bike has 10 speed shifters, since MTB cassettes don't come in 10-speed.

I say just get some compact chainrings and stick with the short cage RD that you have. It should shift ok after adjusting properly and getting the chain length right. It might not be the best shifting, but definitely the cheapest.

Yes they do, IRD makes them and they work very well too.

However, as another poster said, going to an MTB cassette and rear derailleur (with appropriate number of cogs to match the shifters) is the least expensive and a pretty satisfactory way to go.

I'm still selling stuff...

hello hello all.. Sorry I wasn't expecting such quick replies. I stick a few pics up of what i have at mo.
Sushi joe? Where you living? States? round the corner form em in Manchester?

<a href="https://s261.photobucket.com/albums/ii46/kingsimon2000/?action=view&current=P1020411.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="https://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii46/kingsimon2000/P1020411.jpg" border="0" alt="105 shift"></a>

My only thoughts so far are that if I'm hauling up the Alp D'huez I'm going to want to change gear in confidence and not crunch to a halt.. Also I'll need the big ring for the down Hill.

That's a 9 speed bike right? Go Compact double in the front. You can get the tiagra level compact for about $75.

You can then get a 12-27 rear gearing that would be awesome for those climbs (if you don't already have a 12-27).

If you think you need more gearing that that....

you can got to Harris Cyclery and get one of their century special 9 speed cassetes or make your own. 13-30 or 12-30.

You have a LOT of time to get stronger on the climbs. Honestly, get a compact on the front and see how you do between now and june. If you feel you need more gearing, get the 12 or 13-30.

I actually have a friend that has a compact and a 13-30 on his road bike with a ultegra short cage and it works.

Sram also makes a 11-28 9 speed road cassette that is pretty cheap. I think I picked one up for my MTB for less than $40 on ebay.

The Harris cluster is spendy. Over $100.

+1 no question

I have the Allez Expert and did the same thing you are asking about except I have the Ultegra components. I switched to the Triple shifters. they were priced at $300. I did not have to change the rear cassette though or the chain.

1. The shifters are the biggest cost item. The first thing that I would do would be to check out your existing shifters. I've got a couple of Ultegra 9-speed bikes and those shifters are rated as double/triple compatable. I'm thinking that yours might be too.

2. A common set up for non-racer people is to combine a road triple crankset with a mountain bike cassette and rear derailleur. How slow can you go and still keep the bike upright?

3. I've never done it but I'm thinking that you could "cheat" and keep your short cage rear derailleur. It won't wrap up the chain slack in your little/little gear combinations but, on a triple, nobody ever uses anything but the largest 2 or maybe 3 cogs with the granny anyway.

Cheers for all your help guys. Went to my local LBS and the first suggestion they offered up was the Compact route.. Interesting that as I would then not have to swap over the shifters. My ones are definitely only Double which is a right bugger. Going to have to sit down with a pen and paper and work out the gearing with a compact and a different cassette. Would I need to change my front mech with the compact chain set?

Cheers Again.

Simon

No. Just move it down. You will need to remove a couple links from the chain. I did it to my 9 spd ultegra set up.

You've got an Octalink BB. You can still get Ritchey compact cranks for Octalink on Ebay for under $100.

If you need even lower gearing, you can either get a 12-27, or for super low gearing, a 9sp MTB cassette and a MTB rear derailleur. If you want something in between, then you can get say a 12-27 cassette, remove the 16t cog, and add a solo 30t cog. Or make a custom 12-28 from a 12-25 and a 28t cog. Harris Cyclery sells the solo cogs. You need a steel or Ti freehub body to do this, aluminum won't handle the torque.

If your chain wrap (big ring + large cog) - ( small ring + small cog) is about 31 then you need the longer cage derailleur.

The 9sp Ultegra shifters were all triple, even those sold on double bikes. Does anyone know if the same was true of 105? If that was the case then the shop should have told you, but you never know...

No need for pen and paper to make a gearing chart. Use this:
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/gears/