cmcanulty

I have great steel mixte made in canada in 1970s. I put a suntour 14-38 5 speed from ebay in rear and 44-34-24 in front. Can go up anything with loaded panniers and my tiny dog. I love it

jackbombay

Nice!

What rear derailleur?

collcs

I have gotten away from triples for the reasons stated (fussy shifting) and use wide range cassettes. Being a slow senior, I have gone to 94 BCD cranks which allows a 30t large and a 22-24t small with a chainguard. No hills but plenty of range for my steep driveway and occasional wind. My 1966 Louison Bobet had a 13-23 6 speed freewheel and 46/54 chainrings on Stronglight 180mm cranks....back when I was young and strong (bought it new)....alas, no more.

cmcanulty

Mixte is a Sekine Medallion bike I put on a Shimano Tourney Megarange rear derailleur. The only tweak I had to do was slightly alter the deralleur hanger angle to lower it a smidgen. So the gears are min of 14 and max of 85. I am 70 years old and have to climb a long 12% grade to get to town and carry all my groceries, dog, food, etc. The whole conversion was cheap. I think the freewheel was $30 new on ebay and the derailleur was around $25 or 30. The bike is pretty heavy but rides like a dream. Like a Lincoln Town car compared to a small car. My copilot is deceased but I have a new similar co-pilot.

cmcanulty

Mixte is a Sekine Medallion bike I put on a Shimano Tourney Megarange rear derailleur. The only tweak I had to do was slightly alter the deralleur hanger angle to lower it a smidgen. So the gears are min of 14 and max of 85. I am 70 years old and have to climb a long 12% grade to get to town and carry all my groceries, dog, food, etc. The whole conversion was cheap. I think the freewheel was $30 new on ebay and the derailleur was around $25 or 30. The bike is pretty heavy but rides like a dream. Like a Lincoln Town car compared to a small car. My copilot is deceased but I have a new similar co-pilot.

Cycle Tourist

Triples are fussy? Something's not right somewhere if that's the case. I've had "fussy" triples but I've always fixed the problem. 28t grannys are easy to shift and, unless your hauling gear, all you'll ever need. There's lots of nice bikes that have triples. (The Klein Performance or Jamis Quest). Nothing to be ashamed of there.
For loaded touring, a 24 or 23 granny will do the trick. Half step gearing was fine way back in the 5 spd freewheel days but with a 6 or 7spd I think it's just an unnecessary complication.
For my double crank bikes I like a 13-26 for cruising everywhere I want to go and I even raced with that gearset many years ago. The venerable 14-28 was a common gearset for entry level bikes way back when and the reason was so new or occasional riders to go everywhere without blowing out a knee.
If it makes you more inclined to ride then stick a 28 or 30 on your hyperglide or uniglide set and relax and enjoy.

bulgie 

The bike Battaglin used to win the 1981 Giro d'Italia:


Race-day photos confirm this is the actual bike, and it had this granny gear on it. Note how the "lightening" holes were drilled by his mechanic, but not countersunk or even de-burred -- "git er done!". Maybe the only Campy "factory" triple ever to get the "Mexico" treatment?

Jeannie Longo also used a triple to win the Tour de France Féminin. I know she could smoke your ass because when she was in Colorado for high-altitude training, she raced cat1-2-Pro men's races and won two races overall.

Triples and long-cage derailers may not be fully in the spirit of Eroica but we know they allow it, even in the Gaiole original. Here's Bob Freeman's registration certificate for a bike with both those abominations. Note they checked the box for "Ottimo" (optimal), not merely Sufficiente or Buono.:

It's a '61 Cinelli with wood rims!
Bob is the guy who got Soma to make reproduction Rally cage plates for people to bolt on to their NR and SR cambios. But this bike has the ones he made himself, cut from aluminum sheet, before the Soma ones came out.

He also makes 100 mm BCD granny rings to fit Campy "factory" triples (or I should say he has his friend with a CNC mill make them), here's a pic, and see the rest of that album for other interesting repro chainrings. Bob can also drill and tap your old Campy Record double crank to take a granny ring at 74 mm BCD (24t min.), but the link above is to a 100 mm BCD ring for the cranks that came drilled for triple from Campy -- like on Battaglin's Pinarello. As many of you know, Campy only made a 36t ring to go there, no other choices, but Jim Merz made some 31t and 32t aftermarket rings back in the '70s. Dunno why Jim didn't make a 30t, it works great even with vintage taller chains.

I too made myself a 30t ring at 100 mm BCD, before Bob made his so I couldn't just buy one. I made it from a Mavic 74 mm BCD ring, that I drilled 5 new holes in, and cut off the original holes. Album of process shots here, but here's the finished product:

It occurs to me that if I didn't cut the original holes off, this could be used as a quadruplizer! Make it in say 34t, and bolt a 74 mm 24t inner onto it, for a 24-34-44-54 quad. Maybe useful on a tandem, especially if front-drive. In case you haven't seen such a thing, here's an old Singer tandem with a quad ring used as front drive:


I hope this isn't too many photos ; here's one more, my triplizer for a Stronglight 93 crankset. For when you want low gears on a bike that just has to have a Stronglight 93 crank. It uses 100% vintage Stronglight parts and could have been made in the early '70s when the 99 crankset first came out, though I never saw anyone do this before. Granny ring can be as small as 28t.
(This one uses later vintage "bis" drilled rings of course.) Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall...

I made this before Jon Vara (Red Clover) started making triplizers for this crank, so you should buy his -- making one like mine is too much work.
Or just leave it as a double and buy a Red Clover 37t inner ring -- should be low enough for anyone! (Anyone but me.)

​​​​​​​Mark B in Seattle

yukiinu

Shimano triple with 22 tooth granny. 7 speed 34 tooth freewheel and long throw rear derailleur.

The Golden Boy 

Thank you for this link!

Fascinating!!!

The Golden Boy 

Most of my bikes are 80s tourers- so they came with triples and low gears.

The few bikes that I have that didn't come with triples, I've outfitted with triples.

My Trek 730 was rebuilt with a combination of Superbe brakes, Cyclone derailleurs, Simplex shifters and a Stronglight 99BIS crankset.

Attachment 388991

Attachment 388992



And my 86 Trek 400 Elance has been built up with Suntour Command Shifters, XC Pro and XC Comp derailleurs and an Avocet triple crank.


1986 Trek 400 Elance by Dave The Golden Boy, on Flickr

1986 Trek 400 Elance by Dave The Golden Boy, on Flickr

PFH

I've always used a triple chainwheel since the '70's. Nothing to be ashamed of. Depends on how and where you ride, of course. I knew lots of serious riders (not racers) who enjoyed a triple, and they are quite useful in the hilly SF Bay Area. My IRD fd works very well with the Stronglight Zicral on SPA (Sugino) chainset. My Suntour Cyclone rd is great (and works much better than my old Campy NR). Number of freewheel sprockets one can use depends a lot on the frame spacing, of course. Mine's a c.1970 Reynolds 531.
50-39-28 and 13-15-17-19-22-26 (Shimano 600) I'm very happy with this gearing.

rosefarts

My almost modern bike had Campy 135bcd 53/39 and 12-25. I took it up Pike's Peak the second day I had it and thought I might die. It's currently got a carbon Chorus 50/34 and a 12-30 cassette. The 10 speed drivetrain shifts perfectly with the 11 speed crank.

My Spectrum was a bit of a time capsule bike, so it's got the original Uniglide 6 speed 13-24 and 53-42. For my uses this works, but I've certainly looked at my options regarding a 39 tooth and a Dremel tool modified 13-28.