Triple chain ring bypass.

[sitzmark]

Originally Posted by dhk2 .

sitzmark, agree that low gears can be overdone, killing speed and momentum. Not sure why your buddies would want to use their lowest gear on every climb, spinning at 100 cadence. What do they say when you ask them....maybe easier on the knees? The beauty of the triple is that you can ignore the little ring until you need it. On climbs with faster group rides here, my little ring may never gets any use at all. When everyone else is standing and hustling up the rollers, you either do the same or get dropped in a hurry. More low- gearing choices aren't there to force us to ride slower, but certainly can allow for a more relaxed pace if that's what we need or want to do.

Usually if I'm going to shift down to the 30, will do it first, at the bottom of the climb, and from the middle cogs. Having the little ring gives the advantage of not needing your biggest cog all the time for climbing; often I climb in 30/19 or -21, which gives a straight chainline and leaves easy-to-shift cog options for adjusting cadence on the hill or when it's time to get out of the saddle.

It's a crutch. They get psyched out after a couple of big hills and think they need easy to survive the ride. In this case too easy is a detriment. Once their breathing becomes inefficient they are screwed. That's always my first issue when I loop back to pace with them ... let's take some deep breaths and and regroup ... Eventually I think it will work itself out.

 

[AlanG]

Originally Posted by dhk2 .


The "negative connotation" is a funny concept. The guys I ride with on a regular basis all know my ability (or lack of) pretty well. They don't notice my gearing, just like I don't notice theirs. As far as strangers checking out the "pro-ness" of your bike, who cares? If you ride with people who think the equipment reveals something about the riders ability, I'd suggest they don't know jack about real cyclists.

I was commenting that some here seem to imply that others have a negative connotation towards a triple. I have no idea how prevalent this is and I have a triple on one of my road bikes and my MTB bike of course.

 

[Ray1966]

I just purchased a new road bike. This bike has a triple and I love it. I'm turning 46 this year, and my knees are not what they used to be nor is my back. I'm not overweight 165 pounds, but I get a lot more pains than I used to.I ride 60 miles a day 5 days a week.Ben doing that for years The bike I purchased is a Cannondale CAAD 8. got it for $495 new out the door. My thing is this. Don't worry about what other people think of your bike. It's YOUR bike, YOU are the one that will riding it.

If you want a triple, get a triple and enjoy it ( I do ) if not then don't. I told him don't be embarrassed to use it if you need it. If a cyclist that doesn't know you judges you by what you ride, then their not worth riding with any way. Besides, a triple has no loss of the go fast gears. Mine is 52 / 42/ 30. I use it sometime . It's just nice to know it's there when I need it. I don't buy into all this **** anyway. Cycling is a individual thing.Ride what you want, and be OK with it. If you don't let it bother you, and show other cyclists it doesn't bother you what they think it will go nowhere and they will see that they can't make you feel bad for the bike you ride, what it has on it, what it weighs or anything else. Leave all that behind and enjoy your ride.

When you get older, it's time to put that stuff aside and enjoy your self and the things you can do right now. Because the day will come for all of us when we can't do the things we love anymore. That time will come fast enough with out worrying about all the silliness in everyday things.

 

[swampy1970]

This bike, with modified Campagnolo super record triple chainset, was used to win the Giro d'Italia in 1981...



If you need the gears then you need 'em. Function > fashion. Pity the fool that doesn't work to that on a big hill on a hot day...

It's currently hanging up in the Pinarello museum.

 

[alienator]

It's too bad that fashion entered cycling and that roadies (and maybe cyclists in general) can be such snobs, especially about what other people ride and use. Swampy and Ray1966 have nailed it. All that matters is what you get when you divide the number of teeth on the chainring in use by the number of teeth on the cog in use: gear ratio. It shouldn't matter to anyone else how you achieve the ratio that's right for you at any given time. If it takes a triple to get the right ratio, so be it.

 

[CAMPYBOB]

Climbing the Mortirolo (12.4 kilometers at 10.5% and a max.of 18+% and a vertical 1300 meters) after 85 miles of hard climbing and going 30 MPH on the flats for five hours may...just may...require different gearing than hitting that 1/4-mile long "wall" at the end of the 15-mile cruise to the ice cream shop club ride.

Just sayin'...

Your bike...your gears.