double or triple

Revds said:

A bike pro recently told me you get more gear choices with a double than with a triple. My present bike has a triple and I was planning to put a triple on my next road bike too... now I'm not sure. What do you think?

I think your bike pro failed muliplcation in school. If you ride where there are a lot of hills or ride off road, you may find a use for the low gears on a triple. Otherwise they will most likely be wasted if you ride mostly flat areas. You can also use a compact chainset which will allow you to run a double and still get low enough gearing to get up most hills.

kdelong said:

I think your bike pro failed muliplcation in school. If you ride where there are a lot of hills or ride off road, you may find a use for the low gears on a triple. Otherwise they will most likely be wasted if you ride mostly flat areas. You can also use a compact chainset which will allow you to run a double and still get low enough gearing to get up most hills.

Thanks... would the advice make any difference if I added that the bike I'm building up is an Aegis Aro all carbon road bike?

Revds said:

A bike pro recently told me you get more gear choices with a double than with a triple. My present bike has a triple and I was planning to put a triple on my next road bike too... now I'm not sure. What do you think?

A 'bike pro', huh?

Lessee, even tho there is overlap, 3 chainrings, the smallest smaller than a standard or a compact....add...subtract...carry the.......nope, more chainrings, more 'choices' .

Little 'payback' for a modern triple. If it gives the gearing you want or need to ride where you want to ride, get the triple. No reason to suffer up a hill because of coffee shop points.

I recently bought a compact after riding a tripple for several years. I do not notice much difference in climbing and I am not a strong climber.

GREMLIN52 said:

I recently bought a compact after riding a tripple for several years. I do not notice much difference in climbing and I am not a strong climber.

It depends on the cassette combo. I have a triple with a 12/25 at the rear (30 tooth small chainring up front). That is the same as my other bike with a 34 tooth smallchainring (50/34) and a 11/28 cassette on back. But when I go to the north Ga mountains I take my triple with a 12/30 on the rear. A triple WILL give you more climbing gears if that's what you're looking for.
There are several on-line gear calculators to help you decide.

+1 on the triple giving more climbing choices. Once in the 30 ring, from 19 down to 27 gives me a nice range for the hills here. My buddy just put on his triple for the 6 Gap century next month. He has all three cranksets: standard, compact, and triple, but prefers the added choices with the triple for the 6 Gap event.

Compacts work fine, but on rollers here I like to get the big jumps quickly by going from 30 to the 39 to the 53 without having to click through the cassette at all.