Double, Triple or Compact Double

Lonnie Utah said:

What are your thoughts. I live in a very hilly area.

Pros/Cons of each.....

Depends on other factors, mainly how fit are you. If you are very fit and the hills still are too challenging, then maybe a compact or triple would be right for you. If you are just starting out, maybe the hills won't be an issue once your motor gets better. More info if ya want some help.....

Lonnie Utah said:

What are your thoughts. I live in a very hilly area.

Pros/Cons of each.....

If you're in a very hilly area, I'd go a triple, I did, and while I don't use the 30T often, when that long hill get's too long, and I've been on the road for a while, that extra chainring is just what the doctor ordered.

capwater said:

Depends on other factors, mainly how fit are you. If you are very fit and the hills still are too challenging, then maybe a compact or triple would be right for you. If you are just starting out, maybe the hills won't be an issue once your motor gets better. More info if ya want some help.....

I guess I should be more clear. All three have a purpose, and I would be fine with all of them. My curent bike is a triple (but fairly heavy), and the bike I'm looking at has a compact drive standard. I'm not sure I want to give up the 53 tooth ring, and the LBS shop said, "Hey we can switch it out if you want". I'm just looking for what people think of the three drive trains.

Been road biking just about a year. Fitness is coming along very well. When I said hills, we have pitches not far from my house that go 10-12% and go on for a mile or more in length. I can ride to spots from my house that have 8%+ for 6-8 miles. I'm not racing but I'm thinking about it (and that's a main reason that the compact drive has me worried).

What ever I get will be better than what I have now so I'll be happy any way I go.

Lonnie Utah said:

My curent bike is a triple (but fairly heavy), and the bike I'm looking at has a compact drive standard. I'm not sure I want to give up the 53 tooth ring, and the LBS shop said, "Hey we can switch it out if you want". I'm just looking for what people think of the three drive trains.

Ask the nose picker how well it will shift from a 34 to a 53...LOL

boudreaux said:

Ask the nose picker how well it will shift from a 34 to a 53...LOL

From our conversation my guess is they'd change it to a 53/39, but point taken.

Lonnie Utah said:

What are your thoughts. I live in a very hilly area.

Pros/Cons of each.....

How do we know how strong you are or how steep the hills are in your neck of the woods? You need to be more specific with this question.

If you need tall gears use a 53/39.

If you need a little bit lower gears or maybe a tighter cassette with a bigger chain ring jump go with the compact.

If you need low gears period or plan on riding for a greater duration (forseeing fatigue later on in the ride) use a triple.

I use a triple with a 12-23 9sp cassette, but that's a highly personal preference. I find that the tight cassette with the 42 ring covers most terain. The 52 is good for descents and fast group rides, and the 30 will get me up just about anything. I also ride to school occasionally, and while I don't need the 30 ring to get up the hill it's nice to not be a sweaty mess when I get here.

Lonnie Utah said:

I'm not sure I want to give up the 53 tooth ring, and the LBS shop said, "Hey we can switch it out if you want". I'm just looking for what people think of the three drive trains.

Been road biking just about a year. Fitness is coming along very well. When I said hills, we have pitches not far from my house that go 10-12% and go on for a mile or more in length. I can ride to spots from my house that have 8%+ for 6-8 miles. I'm not racing but I'm thinking about it (and that's a main reason that the compact drive has me worried).

The change from a 53 to a 50 is only a 6% difference at the high end, while changing from a 12 tooth to 11 tooth cog in the back is a 9% jump that'll more than make up for it, assuming you're capable of spinning out in a 53-12 on the flats. So I wouldn't let racing decide this issue for you. Instead, figure out what gears you really use most and figure out where they'll fall on a compact setup. For me a compact doesn't work. I live in a fairly flat area and I spend a lot of time in gears around the 60-80 gear inch range. With a compact, my best bet would be to run a 11-19 cassette and work the 34 tooth chainring, or use a 13-26 cassette and use the 50 tooth, and I'd still be shifting from 34 to 50 more than I'd like. With a triple, I stay in the 42 tooth chainring 95% of the time but I still have those extreme high and low gears for those blue moon situations where I need them. And my chainline is much better with a triple.

steve_wmn said:

And my chainline is much better with a triple.

You do know that the small (30T) and middle (42T) chainrings of a triple are the equivalent (as far as chainline goes) to the small(39T) and large chainrings (53T) of a double right? The outer ring (52T) of a triple is in a class by itself becasue it's on the end of the longer triple BB spindle.

EDIT: If you are trying to say that the particular gears you use happen to result in a better chainline you'll get no argument for me though.

So, and I'm thinking "out loud" here, if I went with the Compact, why couldn't I buy another rear wheel and cassette with each "optimized" for what I want to do. For example, the 11-23 for flat land and a 12-25 or 12-27 for climbing (most likely the 12-27 simply for the bigger difference in gearing from the 11-23). The adjustments to the rear derailuer should be minimal. Those combinations put me fairly close to the high and low end of what I've got now (52x42x30 with 12x25). In fact, the compact double with a 50x11 is a bigger gear (122.7"😉 than the 52x12 (117.0"😉 I'm running now (So that's an "improvement"....)

Is this a workable solution/compromise?

Thanks for your replies. Somebody once said something to the effect of "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing!!!" (and I definitely only have a little knowledge....) 🙂

L

When I built my road bike a few years ago, I put on a triple 30-42-53, because I was just getting back into road biking after doing the MTB thing, and didn't have that much confidence in my endurance. Using a triple crankset is also referred to as 'carrying your courage on your chainring'.

Getting ready to take the triple off, because I don't use the inner gear much any more. What I find is that the 30 chainring isn't as helpful as I thought it would be. Sure, it's easier to crank, but you're cranking away for a lot longer. I am finding that if I can stay in the 42 chainring, I can get to the top of hills faster, and discontinue the hard cranking. Sounds silly, but the sooner you get to the top, the sooner you stop having to crank like mad. So having the super low gear can be a curse as well as a blessing. I figure going with a 39-53 should cover the one or two hills that have me kicking down to wimp gear.

Besides, I've been looking for an excuse to play super poseur with one of those beautiful carbon cranksets...

Lonnie Utah said:

So, and I'm thinking "out loud" here, if I went with the Compact, why couldn't I buy another rear wheel and cassette with each "optimized" for what I want to do. For example, the 11-23 for flat land and a 12-25 or 12-27 for climbing (most likely the 12-27 simply for the bigger difference in gearing from the 11-23). The adjustments to the rear derailuer should be minimal. Those combinations put me fairly close to the high and low end of what I've got now (52x42x30 with 12x25). In fact, the compact double with a 50x11 is a bigger gear (122.7"😉 than the 52x12 (117.0"😉 I'm running now (So that's an "improvement"....)

Is this a workable solution/compromise?

Thanks for your replies. Somebody once said something to the effect of "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing!!!" (and I definitely only have a little knowledge....) 🙂

L

If you had 10s you could make a 11-27 cassette to use instead. (there is a thread here dealing with how to do this)

Lonnie Utah said:

So, and I'm thinking "out loud" here, if I went with the Compact, why couldn't I buy another rear wheel and cassette with each "optimized" for what I want to do. For example, the 11-23 for flat land and a 12-25 or 12-27 for climbing (most likely the 12-27 simply for the bigger difference in gearing from the 11-23). The adjustments to the rear derailuer should be minimal. Those combinations put me fairly close to the high and low end of what I've got now (52x42x30 with 12x25). In fact, the compact double with a 50x11 is a bigger gear (122.7"😉 than the 52x12 (117.0"😉 I'm running now (So that's an "improvement"....)

Is this a workable solution/compromise?

Thanks for your replies. Somebody once said something to the effect of "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing!!!" (and I definitely only have a little knowledge....) 🙂

L

Don't need another complete wheel, just swap the cassettes out.

capwater said:

Don't need another complete wheel, just swap the cassettes out.

Yep, It's easy.

Just get a chain whip and a little lockring tool called a Park FR-5 ($15 total) and you can take it off yourself. 1 minute job.

53-11 said:

Yep, It's easy.

Just get a chain whip and a little lockring tool called a Park FR-5 ($15 total) and you can take it off yourself. 1 minute job.

Sweet. Sounds like a plan. Thanks everyone!

L

steve_wmn said:

The change from a 53 to a 50 is only a 6% difference at the high end, while changing from a 12 tooth to 11 tooth cog in the back is a 9% jump that'll more than make up for it, assuming you're capable of spinning out in a 53-12 on the flats. So I wouldn't let racing decide this issue for you. Instead, figure out what gears you really use most and figure out where they'll fall on a compact setup. For me a compact doesn't work. I live in a fairly flat area and I spend a lot of time in gears around the 60-80 gear inch range. With a compact, my best bet would be to run a 11-19 cassette and work the 34 tooth chainring, or use a 13-26 cassette and use the 50 tooth, and I'd still be shifting from 34 to 50 more than I'd like. With a triple, I stay in the 42 tooth chainring 95% of the time but I still have those extreme high and low gears for those blue moon situations where I need them. And my chainline is much better with a triple.

All are valid choices; depends on what gearing you need, what you want to give up.

I put a triple on my new frame here, with 53/39/30, and a 12-25. Thought hard about the compact, but decided I didn't want to give up the mid-range and top-end gears I was used to.

To me, the 30 ring just adds a set of climbing gears, without detracting from what you need for fast pack rides or racing. On a long climb, I'll go into 30/19, which is the same ratio as my 39/25. Difference is the 3 lower gears to play as needed that are easy to shift back and forth; great for changing cadence when you go out of the saddle.

I was talking to a strong guy recently who is still using a triple on long multi-day mountain tours. He agreed he'd probably climb better and have less stress with a triple, but said he just can't stand the way a bike looks with one. To each his own.