2 or 3 chaining road bike?



Status
Not open for further replies.
> No you don't. There's no need to switch the brifter and get involved with tape and cables. The
> triple brifter will work fine with a double setup.

Which is what I was trying to say, but the Pom misinterpreted. I cited the other Shimano groups as
proof that a "triple" brifter is fine for a double, not to suggest that USPS doesn't use D-A.

FWIW, I'm guessing that a sponsored team would just replace all the chains after a stage like last
year's Angliru, and splitting the chain makes changing the FD easy. Any pro mechanic knows the right
chain lengths for the bikes he/she works on (and keeps a few pre-cut chains at hand), so there is no
fiddling around measuring on the bike.
 
Suzy Jackson wrote:
> > Seems like 3-chaining road bikes are making the fad,
>
> They're to cater for the mountain bike crowd who can't cope unless they have gears where they'd
> walk faster.
>
> If you're overweight (either through obesity or luggage) get a triple, otherwise a normal double
> is quite adequate.

I don't ride mountain bikes and I'm 6'0" and 170 pounds so I'm far from obese. I do however, have
bad knees and I live on a mesa and it's difficult to go more than about 5 miles without hitting a
healthy hill (descent first, but what goes down, must climb back up). I like being able to walk up
and down stairs without pain and the low gears of my triple allow me to do that even with the hill
climbing. I switched from a double to a triple because of knee pain.

According to Sheldon's calculator, in my lowest gear (28 front, 26 rear), at 80 rpm's, I'm going 6.8
mph. Not too many people walk that fast (4 mph is actually a very fast walk for most people). I went
from a low gear gain ratio of 3.1 to a 2.1 and my knees couldn't be happier.

--Bill Davidson
--
Please remove ".nospam" from my address for email replies.
 
Jeff wrote:
> San Francisco = 3-ring. Kansas = 2-ring.

Do you even need two rings in Kansas? IIRC it was one of the flatest places I've ever seen. One
might even happily go single gear there if it weren't for the wind.

--Bill Davidson
--
Please remove ".nospam" from my address for email replies.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.