Whew K thanks!

Whoa. The west coast is on in force right now. 5 posts while I was typing. Rad.

Seriously, I apologize for the stuff I said.

My explanation (not an excuse) for what I said, is because it HAS become normalized in our culture. It doesn't reflect my personal views on women or gays. It's just that when this stuff is ingrained starting at a young age, it's hard to get rid of. It's akin to the "brainwashing" that our parents do to us. They give their values to us, and we perpetuate it. People who think about whether these values are valid or not can reject them or keep them.

Again, my usage of the slang was due to its usage in lower education, when keeping up with the slang was cool; not the way I feel or think about women or gays. I love women and don't view them as unequals. I befriend gays, but don't share the same love as I do for women.

That's it.
So please stop. I just want to learn more about cycling.

I'm not gonna wade through the whole thread 'til the weekend, but...

I ran road triple for a while and it was nice, but I only dropped into the granny on a few occasions. I've the 42/53 now and feel like a wuss for buying a 39, but I'm old.

In the back, I'm running a 28 big cog on my clincher wheelset too. Still tough it out with a 13-24 on the tubular set. I don't know how I ever managed with a 13-21 back in the day.

I'm good, I figured it as something along those lines, thats why I didnt go off on ya.

Go ahead, ask away.

^above is an example of expressions in use. Are the elderly going to take offense that Lester said he dropped it into the 'granny'? Maybe. Does it mean he hates grannies? I really don't think so.

Think of how these slang terms are learned and you'll see that I actually am not a *****exual in denial because i bash on gays and pretend to be supermasculine by hating on women.

i just want to make my point clear. i don't want unnecessary hate circulating.

Wow , I could swear I responded to this but I dont see it anywhere. so if it shows up again I appologize for the double answer.
As to the reason of vanity, I agree. No sense dumping the small ring for nothing other than to appear more manly. Heck I ride a triple. I was just pointing out that it could be done, since he didnt care what was up front. He already has a double derailure. This would keep him from having to buy a new derailure. And all the old shifters could be used on either double or triple the limit screw locks out the extra position by design. I did give you credit for the q factor argument I hadnt concidered it, I have no problem with either q numbers so I tend not to think about it.

post and quote deleated by ls01

sorry. i just hate being misunderstood and I wanted to elaborate.

I understand I am the same way. But after a certain point it just feeds the fire. As before no biggie. Should anyone bring it up deal with it then. one on one. Your appology is on here. You did what you should have, hopefully people will accept it and move on.

Mike
Here is the deal with a triple. A triple contains all the gearing that a standard double contains , plus, a set of low gears for climbing. The racer set, dislikes the triple because of the few grams of extra weight, a thirty tooth chain ring, a few extra chain links, a little extra metal in the rear derailure. Also because the smaller chain ring makes climbing easy, the user is percieved as week.
The next option is called a compact .instead of 46/52 in the front they give you 36/48 or some other combination of smaller chain rings. With the correct cassette on the rear wheel you get most of the low gears of a triple and some of the top end gears of a standard. And a slightly straighter chain line, this reduces wear by a fraction. Anyway, The bad thing about a compact is you are giving up some gearing somewhere. Usually, the taller gears and maybe it opens up the spread somewhat.
Then is the standard double, which needs no explaination, its the standard.
As far as climbing goes you will get a bigger bang for your buck by riding moreand building strengthand endurance.

i was going to go thru the entire thread but i was already LMAO before i got to page 2 and couldn't take any more of it. so, sorry if this has been brought up already.

but i just wanted to say that my 105 triple shifts way smoother than my 600 vintage double. could be lots of reasons for the disparity other than the fact that one is a double and one is a triple. but the 105 came with a bike i got on ebay and my first "upgrade" was to get a double (standard or compact) but after riding a few weeks i found no justification for doing so. yeah, it doesn't look as cool as a double and it does bother me a little bit that i have the extra chainring/weight when i live a pretty flat area, but as other have said, the weight difference is minimal and no problems with shifting performance, and it might come handy when i start doing some real climbs. interesting how in mountain bikes, almost everything is a triple (or a single chainring) and nobody cares about it.

I jump out of airplanes without a parachute.
Motionless float planes bobbing on the water.
Sometimes I let the plane start moving along the water before I jump out. Up to 15 knots!

I don't jump out of planes while in the air, because then I'd need the 'chute.
And 'chutes are for wussy.

I've got doubles and triples but I need a chick

I have a chick and only use the big ring.

Finally, a straight BF reply. I was getting weirded out by all this PC junk.

A bike is a Tool (and so is the OP apparently). Pick the one that best serves your purpose and get on with life.

Hey Mike,

Since you're new, you probably haven't caught on that the double/triple thing has way more to do with personal preference and having the right gear combinations than it does with strength. With minimal conditioning, any idiot can climb a couple thousand feet at a steep grade using a standard double and tight cassette.

What triples allow is tight gear selection over a wide range. Whether you're on the flats, going uphill, or downhill, your gears are close together. The compact crank many in this thread refer to typically have a wider cassette. Their total gear range is similar to the triple, but without the middle ring many riders will find themselves riding close to the bottom of the big ring or the top of the small ring (not the best place to be).

Many people who ride doubles change cassettes for different conditions. On any particular ride, the gears you need typically fall in only 2 of the 3 rings, so triples are also good for people who don't want to bother with swapping cassettes.

Just so you know, most newbies ride with at way too low cadence. And when they're not doing that, they're cross chaining their big ring. And even if they are young and physically strong, they often get their sorry asses dropped by women who not only don't race, but are 15 years older and just riding their own pace.

It's also possible that some of us just have no need for a triple. It's not as though we need it but are afraid to be seen with it. Why add something to your bike that will never get used ? If you will benefit from a triple, get one. If you will never use all 3 rings, get a double.

Bingo. I never used the 34 on my compact double, hence it went away over the winter to a standard setup. That gives me closer, more usable ratios in the range that I use. A triple would be way out of range for me.

This is wrong. The racer set dislikes the triples because gearing that low is absolutely useless for racing. If you are going so slow that you need something like a 30x25 then you are getting dropped anyway. For example, a race I'm doing this weekend has an 8% climb, last year I "spun" up it at 90rpm. I don't recall what gear I was in but I had a 53/39 with an 11-23 cassette so it couldn't have been any lower than a 39x23. According to the gearing calculator it was probably 39x21. If you needed a triple to get up that, you wouldn't be percieved as week, you would be week. For steeper or longer climbs I may use a wider cassette, and plenty of [strong] racers use compacts as well. But there is just no use for a triple in racing (with the exception of maybe some of the mega-steep pure hillclimbs).

..

The only knock on triples, from my experience, is that they don't shift as smoothly as doubles, so if you can get by without it, that's good. Easy for flatlanders to hate on the trip and those who use them, but they certainly have a place for rec riders/enthusiasts who ride on steep ground.

Triples are for 'bents...

One of my gay friends uses the term "hetero" to express dislike of something, to "counterbalance the use of the term gay".

I understand most people don't even think of the implications of slang words sometimes. I think I just get up in arms about this one because the slang definition in this context makes gay = bad or wrong.


Yeah, I wasn't really arguing with you as much as just adding my .02. You are absolutely correct that you could. I just pointed out the futility in it. Actually, getting a double RD because the shop is out of triples makes perfect sense to me, although I would have worried it wouldn't reach the outter ring with the wider Q factor. Apparently it wasn't an issue.