So this year I bought my first road bike a trek 1.5. After having it for 2 months I realize that a triple is not for me. I find it that the gears over lap and I constantly find myself shifting to much to find the right gear. ( I know this is lack of experience also. ). It's got tiagra components on it, which have been fine but I think I want to upgrade to either 105 or SRAM rival. So my question is ??? Should I put more money into this bike or just get another next year ? The bike is aluminum with a carbon fork and seat post.

I woukd uograde the whole bike. It is cheaper to go all the way than upgrade the compoents and then decide you wish you had a better frame, wheels, etc. On top of that, you may end up changing wheels as well as tiagra is 9 sp and most if not all upgrades will take you to 10 speed.

Nine speed hubs are compatible with ten speed cassettes so that part would not be an issue.

Why would you need to change wheels? But you would need a new crankset, new shifters and maybe a new cassette. It could get expensive. I'd check it out and see compare costs. The 1.5 is only a year old, so if you do decide on a new bike, you could probably get a decent price for selling the old one.

Try riding around in the middle ring 90% of the time. Don't worry too much about being in the "perfect" gear. Big ring for long downhills/flats, granny ring for the most extreme uphills, middle ring for everything else. I'm guessing you'll find your gearing is fine. I've got a triple and I never use the granny ring unless I've been climbing and climbing and turn the corner and get that "oh god, that's steep and I haven't got much left" feeling. Then it's sure nice to have it.

2 months is not a lot of time to spend on a bike. How would you know that a double would be perfect for you and for that matter, a compact or regular chainring?

Oh, and if you are inexperienced, it is common to being pushing too big a gear at too slow a cadence. I don't know if that's an issue for you, but in general keep a nice smooth, relatively fast cadence.

+1 on not spending money to upgrade. I'd ride it like it is.

That said, if the gears really bug you, it doesn't sound like you need as low of gearing as you have, so you could put on a more tightly spaced cassette, such as an 11-23.

+1

This makes perfect sense. I'm always riding on the big ring and struggle on slight uphills and when Im out of gas I switch down to the granny gear.

Thanks a lot for the input guys. I know 2 months is not a long time to figure something out.

What cogset do you have on the back?

In the last 5 years, I've ridden a triple (52/42/30), a standard double (53/39) and a compact double (50/39). The terrain here in Austin is mainly rolling hills with occasional steep climbs.

I'm a little confused by the description that your gears "over lap". This is normal. Each chainring provides you a range of gear options when mated with a cogset on the rear. The ranges over lap on purpose.

Below are three tables showing gearing combinations for each of the three chainring configurations, mated with a 12-27 cogset on the back.

I set these tables up to represent the MPH you'd be traveling if you were pedaling at 80 RPM. While unrealistic, this is the easiest way for me to think of how gearing affects speed...instead of gear-inches or some other measurement.



Per z90's suggestion, try riding mostly in your middle chainring. This will probably serve the bulk of your needs. When you run out of gears on the middle chainring, then it's time to move to either the bigger or smaller chainring, depending on whether you're going uphill or down.

That is the first thing i learned from this forum several months ago, and it has served me very, very well. It's turned into one of my 'riding mantras', when things start getting tough....'spin more, mash less'...

Ok this is making sense now.

Cassette SRAM PG-950 11-26, 9 speed
Crank FSA Vero, 50/39/30 (triple)

I'm also upgrading to clip less shoes and pedals this week. So that will help a little bit.

So, here's that chart:



I'm using Sheldon Brown's gear calculator (of course)...and he didn't have the 11-26, so I used the 12-26. The 11 tooth probably gives you 1 - 2 mph at the top of each range over the 12 tooth.

Per the previous note, the middle ring gives you a MPH range that is probably perfect for most of your riding.

If you know the cogs, you can enter them manually.

But agreed the one tooth difference is not going to be a big difference.

I sure do appreciate the help guys.

Remember this next time when you ask something and get no beneficial answers.

If you find you're guads are now massive and you can hear the lamentations of those who are tryin to hold your wheel, but just can;t seem to make the 'dingleberries' hurt enough - swap the outside 50 ring for a 52 or 53 (54 is easily had and some searching might find a 56) and scooch the FD up 2 mm on the seattube, have one link added to the chain.
upgrade .... done... go cwush your enemies...

Personally, I LOVE my 42-tooth chainring on my triple but it won't get me up some of the hills around here, so the 30-tooth is great to have. The 39-tooth on my standard double is also great for most of my riding but again, I can't climb all the hills and without a third, smaller chainring, it's of limited use around here. My compact (50/34) gives me the climbing gears I need but the ranges mean that I'm shifting between the 34 and the 50 chainring more frequently (or doing more cross-chaining than I like).

It's all a trade-off.

When I ordered the bike that's all that was available and my LBS thought it was a good fit for me since i was starting out.

That is probably the best upgrade you can possibly add to a bike.

I'd keep your Trek 1.5 as is and save up for another bike if you want one. Then the 1.5 can be your rain bike. I have had a triple road bike and I definately prefer compacts for ease of gear selection and smoother front shifting.

I've got a triple just like the op's (50/39/30). I love it. With the 39, I rarely need to shift the front.

"make the 'dingleberries' hurt enough"?

Congrats on the bike first of all! I love 1.5's and I always will.

Upgrade everything that you can transfer to your next bike.
Saddle, bar, stem, pedals, wheelset, etc...

This way, you won't lose the money and when you upgrade to a better bike,
you'll have all the personalization parts already in possession ready to mount.

Going double would be really nice. Would be so much simpler to ride.
If you did that, either replace it with cheap replacement
parts (Tiagra) or with "keeper" parts (Dura Ace).