I bought a Salsa Vaya last year and I need to upgrade it to a triple. I absolutely love the bike, but to my vexation Salsa came out with the drive train that I wanted THIS year! (After all the defending they did to justify the double over the years on what is basically a tourer) So the question is this: I found some nice Ultegra triple cranks and shifters on ebay, but am wondering if this will work with the 12-36 cassette in the back. Would I need a new chain as well? I know I need a triple front derailleur, and obviously the shifters. Thanks for your help, road peeps!

The front chain ring on the Ultegra is 30-39-52. The stock on the 13 is Sram Apex, not sure if that makes any difference as well.

The chainrings should be cross compatible. You already have a long cage rear derailleur I assume with such a big cassette. Depending on differences in size of chainrings you may need to adjust chain length but I would try it first. Old school but I assume your new triple comes with axle? edit- just re-read and realized you said Ultegra so I assume that's the hollow crank which would have the axle. you do need to make sure your BB is compatible for the shimano crankset.

Ultimately compatible shifters/Frt Der/Crankset should about cover it assuming you have a nice long cage rear der.

If the OE crank is a Sram road compact, as is your Apex, than an Ultegra triple crank will fit. You will need a matching Hollowtech II bottom bracket. You will need Shimano Triple front and rear derailleurs, your Sram derailleurs are not Shimano compatible. Shimano 6603, 6703, 5603 , 5703, and 4603 are compatible with your Ultegra triple shifters. If you want to keep your 12-36 cassette, you will need a 9 speed Deore rear derailleur such as the one seen here. Stay clear of Deore Dyna-sys, these will not work with you shifters.

https://harriscyclery.net/itemdetails.cfm?ID=2774

If you want better gearing and you don't want to spend a bomb, get a different compact crank say one that has 46-30 chain rings. A 30 running on 36 is a heck of a low gear (you were going to buy a crank with a 30 inner ring in any case) and a 46 running on a 12 is a very decent high gear.

Here is one, VO Polyvalent Crankset

You'd need the appropriate BB as well. This way, you only need to change the crank. Cheaper solution to your problem.

Thanks, I've considered that. I had been riding a Marinoni with a nice CAmpy Mirage triple for my tours and just got used to the narrowness of the gears. As much as I love this Vaya, I find there are big gaps between the gears.

Thanks. The 9 speed Deore will work even if the casette is 10 speed?

While the triple would help with that gap. Your main problem is the rear cassette. If you switch to a triple, maybe you can also change the cassette to the SRAM 11-32 to give you tighter spacing.

Another question I have (probably at you, BarrettSCV) is Ultegra and 105 Compatibility. Will 105 shifters work with Ultegra crank and derailleur?

Yes, the derailleur just reacts to the indexing of the shifter.

Yes, 10 speed Shimano road shifters, 10 speed Shimano road cassettes, 10 speed Shimano road cranksets and 10 speed Shimano derailleurs can be mixed and matched. You will need a left hand triple road shifter and a triple road front and rear derailleurs if you are using a triple road crank.

Here I am using a 105 series triple crankset and 105 series triple front derailleur, both 5603, with an 6703 rear derailleur and an Ultegra 10 speed cassette. I could use 10 speed Tiaga for triple, 10 speed 105 for triple or 10 speed Ultegra for triple shifters to shift the divetrain.

What model / speed rather than groupset should be the question, current Ultegra (6800) won't work with current 105 (5700), but the previous generation Ultegra (6700) is 100% interchangeable with 5700.

For changing to a triple, would look closely at the gear ratios & what gain if any you are going to get, I have a '11 Vaya (the first gen) and can't justify changing to a triple from how I initially built it with a 50/34 (5700) & 11-32 (Sram as mention above) as the gain in gears would be so minimal for the additional cost.

My understanding is that if going for MTB derailleur for more tooth capacity (probably good to have even if you switch to smaller cassette, in case you ever want to switch back) in fact it *has* to be 9 speed, not 10 speed. Shimano MTB 10-speed having different amount of cable pull vs. derailleur movement.

So with Shimano road STI, use any road derailleur, or 9 speed MTB "top-normal".

I could be wrong, but won't you need a wider BB too?

So thanks for everyone's help. Now I am wondering about bikemig's solution of a different crankset gearing. The choice of cranks is VERY limited. Does anyone know of any other manufacturers who make that 46/30 configuration beside Velo Orange? I would love it in black, but that might be too much to ask.

Sugino OX601D Cranks Arms w/BB Cups

$400 Ouch

9 speed MTB RD works fine with 10 speed drive trains. On the SRAM side, people have used the X9 RD (medium cage) with the 11-36 cassette and a 50/34 compact to get different gearing.

really need to make sure you have a proper BB for a triple as the width needs to be correct or you'll face chain-line issues.

Shimano 105 BB5500 68x109 5mm English V1 Spline BB | eBay
is not the same as
Shimano 105 BB5500 68x118 5mm English V1 Spline BB | eBay

The 109.5mm is for a double and the 118.5mm is for a triple.

I'm using the 5500 as the example as that's what I've got on both my triples, but I think the same width principle applies int he Ultegra group..