help, tripple conversion

slartibartfast said:

So I 've gotten the bright idea into my head to try and do the Mt. Washington hillclimb this
summer. my current setup is a double chainring and I'd like to convert to a tripple. what is the
bare minimun I need to change out? my assumption is: -Left Ultegra STI lever -> STI tripple (or
add a downtube friction shifter cause I've got one on hand, whoo hoo) -Bottom Bracket (I assume an
ultegra double takes a shorter spindle?) -Crank Set (thinking of running an MTB crank set to get a
lower gear for the 21% grade over the last 1/2 mi.) -Rear Dearailure (from short to long cage)
What about the frount derailure? can I get away with my current one? whats the differance in
double and tripple front derailures? anything else I'm forgetting?

Thanks Jason

I am contemplating the same converstion. LH STi levers are double and triple compatible according to
the instructions that came with mine so its worth a try keeping the current one, however the front
mech will need changing and depending on the ring sizes may or may not work properly. Ultegra triple
front mech is apparantly optimised for 30/42/52 rings and Dura Ace for
30/39/53. Now I reckon its the limited shifting on the STi that forces this as I have used a 105
triple front mech with 30/42/53, 30/42/52, 30/39/52 and
30/40/53 but with friction downtude levers that give plenty of fine adjustment. My fall back
position if I can't get STi shifting to work well will be DT shifters. (STi shifting is helped
by ramped/pinned chainrings too so if you use non ramped/pinned ones as I am likely to do I
would expect problems - hence a contingency plan). A poster on here a few weeks ago reported
fitting his 53/39 rings from a double to a triple spider and shifted OK with a Dura Ace front
mech and Ulterga STis so its worth try.

You will need a longer BB and new chainset of course. Shimano say 109.5mm for double, 118mm for
triple. On my 105 conversion on my other road iron I didn't change the rear mech, I actually didn't
change the BB but I probably had a too long one on originally. I am very careful about which
combinations of ring/sprocket I use and had no problems with a short cage mech. I avoid small(front)
2 smallest (rear) combination and large(front) 2 largest (rear).

The shape of the front mech. cage differs from double to triple to assist picking the chain from the
smallest ring. The travel may be more too.

Bare minimum would be

Chainset, BB, front mech, cable for new front mech.

But you might need new front shifter to get it working properly.

--
The Reply & From email addresses are checked rarely. mseries.freeserve.co.ukmseries.freeserve.co.ukOpen ↗

On Thu, 12 Feb 2004 04:13:23 GMT, slartibartfast <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

What about the frount derailure? can I get away with my current one? whats the differance in double
and tripple front derailures? anything else I'm forgetting?

Why not just use a single chainring in the front?

"Paul Kopit" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

slartibartfast said:

What about the frount derailure? can I get away with my current one? whats the differance in
double and tripple front derailures? anything else I'm forgetting?

Why not just use a single chainring in the front?

I have been thinking of this as a solution as well. I think I'd rather do the tripple though so I
can do it once and ride the bike like that through the entire training season rather than have to
change things out before the race. just adds one more thing I have to worry about. I'm more of a MTB
racer / road enthusiast, so Mt. Washington is my only road race this year.

slartibartfast said:

So I 've gotten the bright idea into my head to try and do the Mt. Washington hillclimb
this summer.

What are you, some kind of nut? 😉

Quoted message said:

my current setup is a double chainring and I'd like to convert to a tripple. what is the bare
minimun I need to change out? my assumption is:

I just did this project. My bike was all 105, the new parts I ordered were Ultegra.

Quoted message said:

-Left Ultegra STI lever -> STI tripple (or add a downtube friction

Nope. Same lever, double or triple. It's the front derailer that must be changed.

Front derailers are cheap -- maybe as much as 20% of what you'd pay for a set of STI levers.

My 105 lever works fine with the triple ultegra FD.

Quoted message said:

-Bottom Bracket (I assume an ultegra double takes a shorter spindle?)

Yup.

Quoted message said:

-Crank Set (thinking of running an MTB crank set to get a lower gear for the 21% grade over the
last 1/2 mi.)

You'll definitely need a crankset. If you use an MTB crank set, be concerned with matching the front
derailer to the chainrings -- the FD's cage shape must match the largest gear nicely and operate for
the smallest.

Quoted message said:

-Rear Dearailure (from short to long cage)

Unnecessary. I did my triple conversion and ended up using my old rear derailer. It takes up enough
slack for me to use granny on the front with middle gears on the rear, while maintaining a safe
chain length so I won't break anything if I accidentally shift into big-big.

That reminds me, I need to return the new rear derailer soon if I want credit for it...

Quoted message said:

What about the frount derailure? can I get away with my current one?

No. You need a new front derailer no matter what, because of the shifter and the cage, and probably
the travel.

Quoted message said:

whats the differance in double and tripple front derailures?

I think cable pull; definitely cage shape and size.

Quoted message said:

anything else I'm forgetting?

New chain and cassette, so you'll have a whole new gear drive? 🙂

I used a new chain and just thoroughly cleaned the cassette.
--
Rick Onanian

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In article said:

"Paul Kopit" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

slartibartfast said:

What about the frount derailure? can I get away with my current one? whats the differance in
double and tripple front derailures? anything else I'm forgetting?

Why not just use a single chainring in the front?

I have been thinking of this as a solution as well. I think I'd rather do the tripple though so I
can do it once and ride the bike like that through the entire training season rather than have to
change things out before the race. just adds one more thing I have to worry about. I'm more of a
MTB racer / road enthusiast, so Mt. Washington is my only road race this year.

_ Kind of pointless IMHO, the only road that comes close to the Auto road in NH is Bear Notch[1] and
it's a lot shorter. A bike setup for the Auto Road is going to have a lot of useless gears for
general riding.

The Auto road is a long sustained climb in which the grade varies only slightly at the beginning.
There's no downhills and no flats and only a couple places that look flat 'cause the rest of the
thing is so damn steep... The only reason to change gears is because you're too wasted to keep
climbing in the current gear.

A single chainring with 9 speeds in the back is about 5 more gears than you'll ever use in the
race. The easiest solution would be to put your MTB crank on the road bike and run whatever middle
gear you're using. Then swap the cassette from your MTB to your road wheels, done. Of course, if
you want to spend money on toys go for it, but there's no real reason to. Heck if I were to do
that thing again I'd be looking for stuff to take off my bike, not ways to make it heavier.

_ Booker C. Bense

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