Di2 on a touring bike? Lollers. Why? For that smooth shifting performance when you need to shave 10 seconds off your 100km race?

There's no reason to get anything better than Deore. If money is burning your pockets I'd get Rohloff and a belt drive for that extra bling.

I don't see why you couldn't tinker with it. One of the reasons why I've been tempted to get a bike with electric shifting is to see what I can do with the components and arduino or something.

Ikr. Starring to wonder if the OP is a sock.

I dunno but I'll speak for myself... In my case I prefer brifters and would like a trekking, read Deore, front triple. At this point electronic shifting appears to be the only viable way of making that happen. I know brifters fail and friction is forever, (Booyah!). I would guess that electronic shifting minimizes the mechanical complexity of brifters and eliminates all issues related to cabling, though in doing so introduces other failure mechanisms and adds grams. But hey we're tourers and don't care about weight, right? Would any of you electronic shifting opponents refuse to buy a drive by wire car? So in my case my research continues into the best way to run a trekking triple with brifters, or without the kludge of bar ends, continues with electronic shifting leading the way.

I have learned to take Squezzy's advice then do the opposite. You will be pretty certain you are doing the right thing.

IRD Alpina D front derailleur? Its a road triple FD with a curve to fit 46-48-3X-2X cranksets like this - https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/u...t/rp-prod40496

I've thought about that as well, then to compensate for chainline differences between MTB and Road put the (2) 2.5mm shims on the non drive side and (1) on the drive side of the bottom bracket instead of the other way around as called out in the installation instructions. *(item 7 in the installation instructions)*

https://si.shimano.com/pdfs/ev/EV-FC-T8000-4107.pdf

Or try a SRAM wide spacing braze on adapter...

SRAM Wide Spacing Braze-On Adapter > Components > Drivetrain > Front Derailleur Parts | Jenson USA

That's pretty much what I've heard. Electronic shifting on a triple is supposed to be fast and accurate. Not so with cables.
But if you suddenly have a top end groupset, it deserves a similar quality frame.

Sounds like you're stuck in the shallow end of the pool. I do feel sorry for you. Cheap bicycles can be downright unpleasant.
Higher quality bicycles are much more pleasant to ride. stronger and more durable too.
Quality counts!!

If you mean "shallow end of the pool" as having my head above water were I can see BS headed my way then you are right for once in your life.

The reasons have been covered pretty extensively above, and I think they're more defensible than shaving ten seconds off of a race time for anyone, on any bike, who is posting on this forum and buying his own parts.

Ok, I understand and can feel the difference between a $500 and a $2000 road frame, but I don't feel the same way about a steel bike that I'm going to use to carry a rack or two and a couple of panniers. What would I gain by spending more money on the frame? Surely there's no durability issue with a Surly frame. Do you think other steel alloys feel significantly stronger? Stiffer? Do you doubt the weld quality? What would make a more expensive and "worthy" bike a better riding experience in this application?

From the first post, I thought the LHT seemed like overkill. I loved mine while I had it, but when I moved to the Troll, I never looked back. But with a set of requirements doesn't include any extended touring, and mostly around town riding and errands, I might shy away from the Troll, too. Well, I wouldn't. I love that bike, but it might not be the best tool for the job. But I do think it would do as well as the LHT on the light touring trips and might be more fun to ride around town.

But what I thought when I read your requirement was the Straggler. I see someone else has said that and that you're considering it. I haven't ridden one. But from what I understand of it's handling, it might make you happier on your group rides, while still being capable of carrying a little for daily errands and carrying enough for some overnights as well. AFAIK, there's no reason you couldn't fully load it for touring, and it'd be interesting to hear from someone who has. But since loaded touring is your least frequent type of ride, and you don't really mention any extended touring plans, I can see the Straggler being the bike that ticks all your boxes.

I know a lot of folks that run mountain triples, 44/32/22, with STI brifters. We have seven in our family.

Thanks for that. I do have aspirations to do some actual touring, but I'm trying to be realistic about the likelihood of my doing it anytime soon. Given that I'm starting a new job, other time considerations, and higher priority vacation goals, it's not really in the cards.

The Straggler does seem like a good option for me. I've ridden two Cross-Checks, one pretty extensively, and I loved both of them, and I'm going to try to find a Straggler to ride in the next week. It seems like it would be more than adequate for the sort of local weekend camping trips that are likely to be my most loaded use case.

Many people on this forum rave about triples as the only way to go for touring. Electronic shifting is the best way to make a triple work.
By the way I'm happy with cable brifters on my 2x10. It's that center chainring that's problematic.

+1. The guy doesn't even tour.

Maybe the folks that rave about triples know how to set them up properly. Have you actually used a triple with either mechanical or electronic shifting?

Maintaining my derailleurs has always been my least favorite part of biking. I am sure that makes me a lightweight, but I'm not excited about the prospect of keeping a triple tuned.

What kind of cables and housings are you using? The only time I ever seem to have to adjust anything is after new ones have stretched a little, or if the bike took a major hit.

I think I have Shimano cables on it right now. I've just never been able to adjust it so that I could comfortably use the full range of gears. I freely admit that I'm probably bad at it.

Yes i have used a triple , and set up properly. Not electronic. Sloppy center ring shifting. Bar ends were bad also. Same opinion with more recent test rides. I just don't like either one. Again I've heard Di2 triple works well. I've never seen anyone shift a triple to the center ring as smoothly as a double shifts.

Blue -- Good questions. I think that I have an appreciation of what you are looking for.
Personally I'm not concerned about just about any frame breaking, inc carbon. Some folks here say carbon falls apart. not true. nothing weak about Al or Ti either. you can expect any frame to last for decades, even touring. Surly makes their frames extra heavy. This will affect ride quality. If you can tell the ride quality difference between a $500 and $2K road frame and appreciate that difference. I'll suggest that you will tell the difference between similar priced touring frames, loaded or unloaded. There's a lot of bicycles out there set up similar to the Straggler, but probably with better ride qualities. If you are stuck on steel look at the Co-motion duschutes. Personally I really like the ride quality of carbon, smoother and just as responsive, plenty strong. There's several "adventure" bicycles around in carbon, probably in your price range. And more suited to Di2 triple if you ever go that way. Since this bicycle will also be for commuting and day rides take those needs in mind also. A heavy steel bicycle might not be the best for those uses. The person was right about needing internal routing if you go Di2. I've heard good things about Lynskey for TI. Don't sell yourself short, get a bicycle that rides well if you appreciate that difference. Thanks!
Good luck in your search.

How did you compensate for the chainline issues? I tried a couple years ago and was very unhappy with the results, For what are now obvious reasons I couldn't get the derailleur to swing out far enough. Granted I spaced the crankset per the instructions, in hind sight I should have at a bare minimum swapped the spacers or placed all 3 on the non drive side, though I'm not sure if the crankset shift would have been noticable. MTB triple chainlines are 50mm while I believe Road Triples and their derailleurs are set for 43.5mm. I know the IRD Alpina calls for a 43.5mm chainline. I'm also starting to consider moving back to a square taper setup as I think that should make the whole chainline thing a non issue as long as I can find a decent ramped and pinned JIS crankset. Sorry to derail the thread btw, though it may help the OP.

Derailleur adjustment is actually pretty easy, or I'm just lucky. A few youtube videos should be enough to get your bike in order.