Double or Triple Chainring

[Chris S]

I've got a triple and I've never used the granny cog.

However I learned to ride on a ridiculously high-geared Sturmey Archer 3-speed.

 

[aberal]

Thanks guys.
Bike bought Cannondale CAAD8 triple Sora

Had a short run on it will take a little time to adjust after riding a Boardman Hybrid for the last year.

You'll learn to love it. I have a Cannondale CAAD3 triple 105 dating back to 2001. 10 years old and still going strong and still my pride and joy. A fast road machine, if you are used to a hybrid, does indeed take some getting used to. Think of it as a thoroughbred horse, twitchy and temperamental. A hybrid is solid and safe, like an old work horse (and nothing wrong with that in its own way). I still remember going out on mine for the first time. It felt like teetering on a high wire. It doesn't take long to get used to it though. Give it a few weeks and you'll find that when you go back to the hybrid its a tad staid - and you'd never noticed before.

 

[GrasB]

I wouldn't exactly call a boardman hybrid solid & safe, sure it has the flat bars but the basic geometry is fairly twitchy. Okay the wheelbase it long so it's not going to be quite as focused missilesque as a road bike but put narrow bars on it & it's not far behind a road bike for twitchiness.

 

[Boyfrom64]

I have just brought a triple - Specialized Sectur and my view on when I was choosing a bike and whether it should be a double or a triple was quite simple. I never wanted to have to get off my bike and walk up a hill, so the answer had to be triple.

Any way, good look with your bike, go out and enjoy.

 

[paddy01]

Horses for courses, the answer is whatever works for you.

For me personally - The last 3 years I've been riding a Trek 1.2 triple (first road bike), essentially I never used the small chain ring after the first couple of days of ownership which is why... the Trek Madone 4.5 I picked up Friday is a compact double. Suits me perfectly here in Devon where you can't put a football down without it rolling off in some direction

 

[MacB]

It is a personal choice and there's also nothing to stop you changing at a later point, I would tend towards the triple as an off the shelf option, the additional weight wouldn't be a concern and I'd rather have a gear and not need it than vice versa. But, being me, I also find it interesting to look at the numbers, using a 700x23 wheel for example:-

a 53x11 gear is 127 gear inches
a 30x28 gear is 28 gear inches(MTB 22x36 would take you down to 16 inches)

So that kind of covers your overall potential range for a road setup, from 28 to 127, then it's just a case of working out your own personal start and end points and choosing the best match for that. If you need/want lower gearing then you need to think touring/MTB gearing, wider range cassette, longer cage rear derailler and smaller chainrings in whatever combo suits. If you need higher gearing then you're a creature far beyond normal cycling abilities/practices

While it may feel macho to have something like a 53x11 as a top gear how often would you use it and, more importantly, how often would it actually add to your speed? For example I regularly reach 35mph on a local hill by pedalling in a 78 inch gear and then tucking down, I reckon I hit about 29mph before I stop bothering to pedal, that would be around 125rpm. A 105 inch gear would see you hitting 40mph at 125rpm, so that 53x11, in my mind, would be if you were needing to pedal at 50mph...not a world I'm ever going to be familiar with.

You can mess about with a triple much easier to either get what you want or alter to what you want as your needs change. It can be turned into a double, you can move the chainline via the BB length, you could go down to a 24t inner, you can replace the outer with a bashguard.

 

[asterix]

Once I had a 117 inch top gear and it was too high. My present set up is c. 100 and I have got 50 on it more than once. (Garrowby Hill, Sutton Bank and Holme Moss)

 

[JohnnyBoy]

However I learned to ride on a ridiculously high-geared Sturmey Archer 3-speed.

Now there's a blast from the past, Sturmey Archer...! I had one of those 3 speeds too, happy days..!

 

[Glover Fan]

Horses for courses, the answer is whatever works for you.

For me personally - The last 3 years I've been riding a Trek 1.2 triple (first road bike), essentially I never used the small chain ring after the first couple of days of ownership which is why... the Trek Madone 4.5 I picked up Friday is a compact double. Suits me perfectly here in Devon where you can't put a football down without it rolling off in some direction

Exactly and I think a compact double suits the bill perfectly. I dunno a triple on a road bike just doesn't sit well with me. I'm from South Somerset originally so my experience of hills is hardly limited. The only hill i've ever had to get off and walk up was coming out of Sidmouth towards the Norman Lockyer observatory, but I swear that is just a vertical climb.

Horses for courses as they say.

 

[paddy01]

Ah Peak Hill.. which way were you headed? Towards or away from Sidmouth seafront?

Lost me lunch at the top riding up the backside towards the seafront with a triple.. not tried it since.. although that's probably a good enough reason to go try it on the compact double at the weekend...

 

[Cletus Van Damme]

Lots of hills in West Cumbria and I have a dodgy knee so both my bikes (hybrid and road) are triples.

 

[corshamjim]

Ah Peak Hill.. which way were you headed? Towards or away from Sidmouth seafront?

Lost me lunch at the top riding up the backside towards the seafront with a triple.. not tried it since.. although that's probably a good enough reason to go try it on the compact double at the weekend...

Forgive my smugness but I somehow managed to get up Peak Hill last year on a Dahon D7 folder (7-speed cassette/single chainwheel). I confess I nearly wheelied off balance half way up and did indeed feel quite sick on the previous hill. By the time I got to Peak Hill I must've found some 2nd wind from somewhere.

 

[MacB]

Forgive my smugness but I somehow managed to get up Peak Hill last year on a Dahon D7 folder (7-speed cassette/single chainwheel). I confess I nearly wheelied off balance half way up and did indeed feel quite sick on the previous hill. By the time I got to Peak Hill I must've found some 2nd wind from somewhere.

It's not smugness merely a reflection of your abilities and I reckon people should gear their bikes to reflect their own abilities. If they intend rapid/dramatic improvements then gear up but if they get a bike with gearing, because it looks better or a road bike shouldn't have a triple, and then have to regularly walk up hills, I think that's a bit sad.

 

[Bicycle]

Triple.... I'd go triple in a shot if I were buying now.

All my road bikes are single or double, but that was an unhelpful mix of machismo, pride and minimalism (mixed with miserliness).

My MTB is triple, but I wish I had a road bike that was...

I am not Jan Ullrich, but I thought I was....

 

[epictrail]

I'd go Triple although it more work as you have to adjust the position of the front mech with the lever as you ride along. A double is just up to the big ring and down to the smaller ring no adjusting.

All depends on the hills were you're riding if its te way to go or not and how fit / macho you are.

Although with the new 11-28 cassettes the range is now much better even with a compact double than it used to be.