Traditionally triples are found on touring bikes or on enthusiast level road bikes. The advent of compact cranksets enables many to use a compact set-up while gaining close to the gear range of a triple, but with less weight.

Oh, and triples aren't just for chicks. There are plenty of women turning 54/39 who would gladly rip your legs off on a climb for your chauvinistic statement.

I would like to see campy/sram/shimano stop increasing the amount of gears that are being made and instead allow a really wide range of gear size options. Unfortunately it probably isn't sound financially though.

Sorry Mike, trim or trimming is a minute adjustment of the front derailure, normaly done to prevent the chain from rubbing the front derailure after the rear has been shifted.

wow, did you sighn up just for that. :thumb: Welcom to the insanity.

For chicks?
Gay?
What the heck is wrong with you?

Mods, please suggest to the OP that he reword his question in a polite way and get rid of this hateful crap. Even my most poorly behaved middle school student speaks more respectfully than that.

QFT

Thank you.

This post is clearly some weak form of trolling.. i wouldn't expect much in the way of decency.

well I wouldnt hold your breath. What would they charge for if not for inovation. The more gears you have the smaller steps between each gear,makes it easyer to get up to speed and to get every last ounce out of my old legs. I was pretty satisfied gear wise with 8 speed. I have shimano 10 speed now and love the rest of the refinements that go along with it.

lol

qft? Huh?

quit feeding the troll?

quote for truth

Yes, and before that they had NO gears.

Ok, so the OP is either a troll or an idiot, but I'm bored so I'll answer seriously, mostly...

Riiiiiiight... because all men are stronger than all women... :rolleyes:

Everybody has an optimal cadence range, and you want to have low enough gears to keep your cadence in that range. Note that for various reasons the optimal climbing cadence is often lower than the optimal flat cadence. For example, someone may ride comfortably at 90-100rpm on the flats but prefer to climb at 70-80rpm, regardless of lower available gearing. Now, is a triple necessary? I wouldn't say that it's necessary as you can usually get low enough gearing with a compact double and/or a mountain bike cassette, but some people do prefer them. You can get a very small inner ring and have some insanely low gearing with a triple if you so desire. Of course, how low of a gear you need depends completely on how strong you are and how steep the grades that you routinely climb are.

Do you know what your cadence is on those steep climbs? If it feels like you are getting bogged down, then your cadence is probably too low. There is no reason to try to stay in the middle ring, you aren't proving anything to anyone. You also need to consider that the middle ring on a triple is usually bigger than the middle ring on a compact double.

Not everyone has the same optimal cadence but a good place to start is 90 rpm. Get a computer with cadence and try to keep your cadence around 90. It may feel hard at first if you aren't used to it, but if you practice it, it will become more natural. You can also do cadence drills, where you ride at an even hgiher cadence for a short amount of time, then drop down to whatever comes naturally (i.e. don't worry about what it is). For example you may start out by doing 100 rpm for a minute, resting for a minute, then repeat. After doing that for a while, your natural cadence set point will increase and 90 rpm won't feel as hard. You can also over time increase the amount of time you hold 100 rpm for.

Fail. I'll bet I can spin up most climbs on my double faster than you can spin up them on your triple.

Increased number of gears on the cassette mostly allows narrower gaps in gearing, not necessarily lower gearing.

Finally somebody in the thread with some sense!

It simply depends on who and where you are. I find the triple to be a complete waste of space, I never use it.

Ah.

Not prepared to hold my breath either. Eventually they are going to have to re-think this. The 11 speed chain is already pretty thin. For innovation they could make the deraillieurs a bit more slim and aero.

If you take anything away from this supremely informative post, take this. I have learned this very axiom first-hand when my cadence finds that hole in the gearing.

This post gets the Pcad Hanging Curveball Award for January 2010.

Nothing else even comes close.

This is precisely the kind of 41 thread that stokes the considerably over-inflated egos of the insecure Road Nazi Morons in the 33.

I started riding with a Campy 53/39 double and replaced it with a Campy 53/42/30 triple. I see no difference in the shifting on the 53/39 vs the 53/42. It take a little longer to drop into the 30. However, I hardly use the 30 anymore but there are times when I am glad I have it. I try to keep my cadence at 50 or above on hilll climbs to relieve pressure on my knees. 99% of the time, I can do this easily with the 42 but once in a while...

Also, I prefer the 42 over the 39 for an overall gear. One last thing, a triple lets you keep a tight cassette for example a 12-23 or 12-25 and still have good climbing gears. With a compact, you would loose at both the top and bottom end. A compact would need a 11/28 to match a 12/25 on a triple.

A big enough difference that racing drivetrains switched over about 15+ years ago. My early race bikes (c. 1990) were 53/42, 53/39 is a more flexible combination. That 4 teeth reduction makes a meaningful difference in gear ratios when you get into gears like 39 x 23 or 39 x 25.

While I agree with you in principal, the thing is, you expect it to make sense. 30 years ago you had a double up front and a 5 gears in the back. today you could get all of thos gears with a single up front. Has that slowed anyone down? heck no. There in this forr the $ and that is the only reason . As consumers we trained these companys to do this. They produce another gear and we throw away what was brand new last year and pay the exorbidant prices for what is current. Like lemmings ( or is it lemers) Inovation, coupled with marketing, add a dash of hype and you have the latest thing. I am sure they have a new gear in the works just to push the envelope even further.

I guess what I meant to say is that if you don't use the small chain ring on the triple and you just compare the middle and large chain rings on the triple to a standard 53/39, you won't see a difference in shifting quality. 99% of the time, I only use the middle and large chain ring. I need to be climbing a 15 degree hill or be tired as hell to use the small chain ring.

For racing, a triple is not the way to go, but I guess a compact isn't either. I am too slow to ever consider racing so I just race myself. I compare today's ride with what I did a month earlier.

Pick your gearing, triple, standard, or compact. It matters little as 28% Dalewood Way in San Francisco will yank your skeleton through your mouth and toss it amongst the Eucalyptus trees. It's my personal favorite. Not the steepest but the block is longer than anything else in SF.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4020/...4389873b_o.jpg