I know this subject has been beaten to death so I am not going to ask about the pros and cons. What I am interested in is anyone that has gone from a triple to a compact, has your front Dr shifting gone down or up?

I have a Campy triple 30/42/53 with 13-26 cassette and I am in the middle chain ring 95% of the time. However, on really fast rides when I am pushing as hard as I can, I will spin out in the middle chain ring and need to switch to the big chain ring and I am trying to avoid doing this. if I had a 50/34 with a 12-29, I would have the same range as I do now with slighly farther jumps in between gears at the top of the cassette. I was thinking that I could stay in the big chain ring and I wouldn't spin out. Or, I could just replace the cassette on my triple to a 12-25 or 11-25 and I wouldn't spin out in the middle chain ring.

For those of you that have gone from the triple to the compact, do you miss the triple at all?

You may find the compact is a bit more finicky to keep adjusted properly. You've probably heard otherwise, but the 16 tooth difference as compared to 11 or 12 is significant. Otherwise, no. I don't miss a triple although I do like to get that bike out now and then.

I have not found the adjustment to be an issue. I also find myself in the big ring more and most shifting is in the rear. Myself I hated the triple. to many gears to close together. I have about 1000 miles on my compact double and other than the initial cable stretch it has required no adjustment. works really well.

I have a triple with 11-28 and a compact with 12-25. I shift the front much less on the triple. For my normal rides here in the flats west of Chicago, I don't really need the other two rings at all.

If you are spinning out the middle ring on the triple, you might consider a much smaller change like changing the cassette instead to something like an 11-26 or 11-28 to give a bit more top end.

Yes, changing the cassette to an 11-25 and keeping the triple would be the cheapest solution. People complain about the weight of a triple. going to a compact might save me 100 grams. This probably isn't going to be a big deal.

I only use the small chain ring on the nastiest hills which I come across maybe once or twice a year. I don't pedal going down hill so I don't really see much need for the big chain ring unless I am spinning out in the middle. An 11-25 would solve that problem.

Have you considered that a 42-26 is a bit easier of gear than a 50-29? (although I think that would be pretty bad crosschaining). I guess I'd be worried that I'd end up gearing down to the 34 tooth for climbs more often than I was gearing up for "fast sections" on the triple.

Yes, the 50-29 would be in the middle of the 42-26 so I would be losing about half a gear. I don't think that would be a big deal for me. I am concerned about that cross chaining issue. I have been told by some that all gears on a compact are useable and that cross chaining isn't an issue but I have also heard that this isn't true. In the middle chain ring on a triple, there isn't any cross chaining issues.

My goal is to reduce front chain ring shifting. If I had to jump back and forth between the the chain rings with the compact, then I would stay with the triple.

That would be my inclination, if you wanted to reduce front DR shifting. I have a triple with 12-28 which I seldom shifted, so I did away with it on my other bike with 11-30, with only a 44 in front. If you don't mind big gaps between gears. Adding a second ring, 26 or 30, whatever, there still wouldn't be much shifting except on big hills. maybe once at stops, and that's it.

I am not a noob. Are you talking about a compact or a standard? I live in a place that is too hilly for a standard. So, I either want a compact or a triple. I have considered a 52/36 as well.

I will probably do that.I can climb in anything with a triple. We have climbs that are 8000 feet here so I do want a bailout gear which either a compact or a triple could provide.

You joined the bike forum a month ago and you are calling me a noob? How long have you been riding?

I went from a tiagra triple to a sram compact double with an 11-32 cassette for climbing and I don't miss my triple at all, and adjustments are much easier.

This is good. I would like a 11-28 compact but Campy only makes a 12-29 and as someone else suggested, using the 29 on the big chain ring could cause a cross chaining issue.

Cross chaining is bad for chain wear no matter what the cogs and chainrings are. If you get the correct derailleur and size the chain correctly then you won't explode things if you accidentally shift to the 50x29. I sometimes run a 30t large cog for climbing races. I size the chain so 50x30 will work. I try to stay out of the large chainring/large cog but sometimes at the top of a climb I'm not thinking all that clearly.

I went from a triple to compact double six years ago. I no longer needed the low gears of the triple. Front derailleur adjustment is no more difficult on the compact than it was with the triple. The one drawback to a 50/34 compact is on rolling terrain, where you wind up doing a lot of shifting of the front chainrings. Using a fairly wide range cassette helps, as you can get a lower gear while still in the big ring. If I only needed a 23t large cog then I'd use a 50/36 or 53/39 to cut down on the front shifts.

Thanks, this helps a lot. I was off of the bike for almost a year because of surgery. Since coming back I am making rapid gains in fitness, speed and hill climbing ability. If I continue on like this, my gearing needs might change and I might end up with a 36/52 chain rings and a 12-29.

I currently have three bikes. One with a triple (and 8 ring cassette), one with a compact (and 10 ring cassette) and a standard (with 6 ring cassette). Off the top of my head I'm not sure of their exact gearing.

On the triple, I find I am often in the middle ring but hit up the big ring for descents and good straightaways and only hit the small ring if I am going up a tough hill. On the compact, I find I shift a lot between the big ring and the little ring in most situations. I also seem to want to cross chain more with it. On the standard I almost always sit in the big ring, going to the smaller one on hills. This bike is new to me though, so I'm still working out the gearing on what I like best.

I started with the triple, got the compact bike, then the standard. Of the three, I'd say I like the gearing on the triple the best. I love the option of having a bigger ring to blast it when I want or a small granny ring to get me through the tough times. If I had to pick one, I'd use a triple and ignore all the BS talkers.

Same here, I switched from a triple to a compact earlier this year and with the triple I pretty much left it on the middle chainring on flatter roads. With the compact my bike makes pretty noticeable cross chaining noises below 17mph on the big ring. I don't think it's good to ride around on the 34-13 or 34-11 with so little derailleur tension on the chain so I'm shifting up to the big chainring around 17mph. On flattish roads that is not an ideal switchover point for a road bike if you're cruising in the 18-20mph range. Throw in a gusty headwind or a false flat and it gets a little more annoying. But if you don't think cross-chaining is detrimental a compact works just fine.

8000?! Whoa...nice.

Where did you ride to? How long does it take to do a climb like that?

Much, much, much, much more with the compact. More than 10X more often since every transition from dead flat to a false flat up-hill and back again meant a front shift from 50x21 to 34x15 as speed dropped below 17 MPH and back again from 34x14 to 50x19 once it went back above 19 MPH.

I dropped the compact in one of my spare parts boxes and regret waiting as long as I did.

While you can get the same range and spacing with a compact crank that you used to get with fewer cogs on a triple that doesn't tell the whole story (I'd been riding 50-40-30 x 13-14-15-16-17-18-19-21 and migrated to 50-34x13-14-15-16-17-18-19-21-23 after wearing out parts because the range and spacing were the same and 2 rings must be better than 3).

When you run the numbers taking into account that a given rear cog acts like one 2 bigger with a 34 ring instead of a 39 and that the middle ring is centered on the rear cluster which provides an acceptable chainline for the smallest and largest cogs you notice that you can put out 90% more power on flat ground using a cassette with the same starting cog before you need to shift to the big ring.

My blanket advice would be that if you're not strong enough to spin a 39x21, 23, or 26 (depending on whether you prefer an 11, 12, or 13 starting cog and assuming only 10 cogs in back - you can add a gear with 11) up the vast majority of climbs in your area and still manage the rest stick with a triple and consider a smaller granny ring. You'll get less front shifting and tighter spacing in back.

Why do you hate front shifting so much? Does it not work well? Maybe that is somewhere to start.

I switched from a triple to a compact, but not sure my experience is relevant, since my cassette is nothing like yours on the triple. The amount of front shifting I do has probably increased a little on flatter rides and not changed much at all on hilly/mountainous rides.

I do miss the closely spaced gears on the triple, though, and I miss my middle ring.

I think you would do best to get an 11-2x cassette, you won't spin out your middle ring as soon. I think if you get a compact you are really going to miss your 42 ring.

A new cassette is a very small investment compared to a whole drive train. Unless you want a new drive train, in which case, get one!

Thanks, I do think I will stick with the triple. I just got back from doing hill repeats and the smallest gearing I needed was a 42-26. The only time I would ever use the small chain ring is when I am climbing a few hills around me that are four or five miles of constant climbing and my legs are burning. I will use a bail out gear but rarely do I do this.

Mainly I hate shifting the front when I am riding with a friend of mine and we are both hammering it and I spin out the 42 chain ring. Shifting to the big chain ring means he is going to leave me in the dust. However, I think the best option would be to put a 25-11 cassette on then I know I will not spin out the middle chain ring until I hit maybe 25-26 MPH.

That would be the Big Bear climb which takes a couple of hours. I haven't climbed it yet but I am training for it. There is a ride called, "The Ride Around the Bear," that my club does training rides for. We do have some some nasty climbs around here that are not that kind of elevation but they steep and fairly long. The hills I end up climbing the most are up Newport Coast and then up Vista Ridge. I can not climb Vista Ridge without using my smallest chain ring.

Then stay with the triple. Having used both a triple and a compact, I definitely find myself shifting more up front with the compact. It's just slightly more difficult to find the "right" gear in the middle of the range. It seems a bit more satisfactory with a 50-36 than a 50-34, but really there are so few disadvantages to the triple with a tighter cassette that I'd stick with that rather than change.

+1
I have both and prefer the shifting aspects of the triple, though I would not spend any money converting one to another.