Compact, Triple or Double...150km+ Fred Whitton & Etape du Dales in mind!!



mansize-rooster

New Member
Oct 28, 2007
3
0
0
Hi,

I have recently purchased a road bike for the first time and am planning to do some rather lengthy rides with the intention to ride some of the epic 100 mile plus road races next year (Fred Whittion, Etape du dales) however feel that the gear ratios are not quite right. It has a 9 speed 12/23 cassette on the rear and a 53/42 on the front and its making it bloody hard and extremely slow to ride difficult climbs. Im reasonably fit and usually ride with quite a high cadence on climbs as have a mountain bike history.

I am now thinking of getting a triple chainset for the front 52/42/30 and sticking with the 12/23 for the time being on the back. Does this sound like a decent switch?

I have thought about changing the 42t for a 39t, Changing the cassette on the back to a 13-26/13-28, and recently thought on getting a 52/34 compact but didn't like the sound of the huge jump between gears so thinking that a triple may be the way forward.

The bike is a Peugeot with Campagnolo Veloce gears and components!

If I was to go for the triple idea, is their anything else I would need apart from what I have linked??

http://www.allterraincycles.co.uk/index.php?page=basket&add=1&finance=N&add_pid=107924&x=41&y=6

Thoughts and opinions welcome.

Thanks
 
Switching to a double will be likely be less money and work - no need to change the shifters (you may or may not have to, depending on the type you have right now) and bottom bracket - you need a wider one for a triple. It will make a big difference if you just go to a pretty standard double set up 53-39, though as you are used to mt. bike gears you may still be missing the very small ones you would get with a triple. Most people don't have any problems with compact doubles either - both triples and compact doubles will shift marginally slower than a standard double and pose some more chain dropping problems, but unless you are in a real race situation where seconds can count its not going to affect you much.
 

Similar threads