nlerner

So much depends on your terrain, your pace, etc. For me, I find I spend very little time in the small ring in front (and most of my compact doubles are 50/34 or 48/30), except for the steepest climbs. It's just not that hilly around here in eastern MA. And for those rides that are serious climbs, I stay in that small ring for the duration of the climb. Guess I'm somewhat of a masher, no a spinner.

BradH

1990 Specialized Sirrus Triple.

Reynolds 

Don't know if he ever raced on a triple, but I recall reading an article on a late '90s magazine about how now that he was retired, he used a triple for his leisure rides. I suspect this was publicity to get fans to buy triples though.

SpiritCyclist

You can't really tell from the photo, but it's a triple. I got a good deal on the crankset, and the 9 speed group I was swapping over to this frame had a triple shifter/FD, so there you go.

Is a nearly 20 year old Cannondale a classic? It's still sporting a quill stem, after all...

thook

in any case, it sizzles!!

bulgie 

No he didn't! For one thing, he only used the bike with the triple on one stage, the Tre Cime mountain stage, which he didn't win... but it gave him enough time on his GC rivals to give him the overall lead, which he held to the end.

More importantly, the bike in the pic is not the bike he rode that day. Yes I know, Pinarello says it's the bike, but they are wrong (mistaken or lying, I can't say). I have seen two rather different bikes both claimed to be the Tre Cime bike, and I searched for and found several race-day photos that show that the other bike is the one he raced on Tre Cime.

I'm not going into the full list of differences between the two bikes, but the most obvious one and easy to spot in photos is the seatstay top "eye" is chromed on this bike, and painted red on the real Tre Cime bike.

Interesting details abound on the real Tre Cime, such as the lightened Campy brakes that have the two nuts on the front of the brake replaced with a single, non-adjustable nut that is counterbored in flush with the front of the brake. Note also the ack of a barrel adjuster, to save those few precious milligrams.


The crankset is unique, at least I have never seen another one. It's a standard Campy triple, but the arms have been de-anodized, profiled/radiused, and highly polished, sometimes referred to as the "Mexico" treatment (maybe Colnago's word for cranks done that way?) You can tell they started with a regular Campy triple by the way the fluting on the 5 spider arms stops short of the granny bolt holes. Regular Record cranks that are 'triplized' aftermarket have the granny bolt hole coming up in the fluted part.



Look at that massive indent in the chainstay — that's because the BB spindle is a titanium SR, which was never made in a triple length. So this bike has the chainline of a double, with the granny ring only intended to be used with the bigger couple of cogs in back. The tubing was reputed to be Columbus KL, which was the lightest road tubeset Columbus made back then. Scary-thin chainstays even without the indent! I wonder if maybe they used a slightly heavier chainstay, perhaps only on the right side. That's what I would have done. But then, this frame was literally made to ride once only, and as far as we know it was never ridden again, so fatigue endurance was not high on their list.

Also interesting here is the amateurish "drillium" — check out the big ol' burrs left on the holes in the granny. Shoulda countersunk those! Battaglin's mechanic may have been in a hurry to get it done in time for the race.

In some bike mag (I forget which), they interviewed someone at the Pinarello "museum" where the fake race bike is stored. The person there claimed the Campy triple on the Tre Cime bike was invented and specially machined just for that bike. That's nonsense, Campy started making those triples in 1972 at the latest, some say at the request of Schwinn, but at any rate they did appear on the '72 touring Paramount. The one on Battaglin's bike is identical except for the Mexico treatment. I think the person at Pinarello who got the story wrong was probably too young to have been around back then, so he can be forgiven for not knowing, but making up that ridiculous story is not so easy to forgive.

Why Pinarello would have a fake Tre Cime bike is a mystery. Maybe they don't even know it's not the real bike. Someone lost or stole the real one and came up with a plausible-looking replacement? It's like all the Merckx hour-record bikes out there, or all the ones claimed to be the Masi used in the movie Breaking Away, even though they are obviously not. Most people don't look very closely I guess.

Anyway, reports from race day confirmed he did use the granny and it was an important reason why he gained time on his GC rivals, who were over-geared and in pain. Some say he "won" the Giro that day, but that's such an over-simplification. To win a grand tour, you have to be on form every day or at least not crack and lose too much time. So a win really is built day by day, and all the days where he didn't crack or crash are also "the reason" he won the Giro.

Mark B in Seattle

bikingshearer 

All my bikes have triples and they are all fast. Or at least they would with a better motor.

Andy_K 

With the caveat that all of my bikes a slow, I'll agree that 2/3 of them meet the criteria here. The other 1/3 are slow(er) bikes with triples.

A few of the racier ones...

JaccoW

I hope to try my first compact double this year. My current rando bike above has a 9-speed triple setup with the following gear range:


Gear Calculator Batavus Randonneur GL

But I should get most of that range in an 11-speed compact double:


Theoretical gear range Koga-Miyata WorldTraveller

What I am missing on my current bike is some better granularity in the top end while the highest 52 x 11T gear is only useful with a tailwind or downhill.

DMC707

sure it is- I may be the wrong one to ask though, as myideaof classic or vintage is a little broader than some, - but 1” quill stem is one of the CV checkmarks for me too

seypat

Maybe some of you don't have many punchy hills in you area. Or, if you ride friction, it doesn't matter. Let's look at the 2 layouts above and get to riding. We're rolling down the road on our 43/12 or 13 feeling good. Here comes a hill, dang it. It not the steepest, but it's enough to drop us back onto the 26/25 or 28. How many shifts is that, minimum? The hill is only 200-300 yards/meters long. Now we're at the top, and we have to go right back to the previous gear we were in. We get back and get to rolling again. Dang it, there's another hill coming up in a minute or two. It's a little different, but the same ritual. Anyway, we repeat the process and get back to cruising again.

Now we're on the same ride with the triple, doing the exact same processes. Looking at those charts, we are eliminating a couple of shifts or more each time we shift when we encounter a drastic change in terrain/grade. Over an all day ride, that reduction adds up. For me, it's the difference between being able to shift/brake with my right hand or not(with brifters) late in the ride. That's why I mainly ride friction/barcons and triples.

On a slightly related side note, I was swimming laps last night. On my 15th up/back, the arches of my feet started cramping and I had to quit. If I swim after a run or a ride, that number will be reduced into the 5 up/back range. I'm a fast twitcher, My body's not built to go all day long. That's ok, I never have to worry about attempting an Ironman tri.

Reynolds 

Thanks Mark B! I remembered Battaglin winning that Giro, but wasn't aware of the details.

JaccoW

Both setups are built around bar-ends. The 9-speed on double friction shifters the 11-speed on a modern clutched derailleur and an indexed barcon and a friction front.

fishboat

While I have other road bikes, this one gets the most use. I run 28mm Gravel Kings on it(they measure just shy of 27mm & nicely fit). In recent years it's sporting a brown Brooks Imperial.

Steel Charlie

When I was shopping for a beater (got a '06 Allez) I noticed that there were a surprising number of relatively pricey 3x9 factory models. The Allez is one and tho I seldom use the inner it serves as an insurance against old age exuberance descending into stupidity just too far from home.

Andy_K 

I find this perplexing. Aside from the issue of having the right spindle and front derailleur to make a triple work, I can't see how a compact double is an improvement in any way. I've tried a compact double (50-34) setup. For extended road riding in works OK. For anything where I need to start and stop, I feel like I'm always in the wrong gear and constantly having to switch back and forth between the front rings. A 46-34 double work a little better for me, because I can mostly just use the 46T ring with the 34 as a bailout, but that's the other problem -- a 34T bailout gear isn't really sufficient as a bailout.

Everyone these days loves 1x setups. The way I use a triple is very much like a 1x with other options. I do 90% of my riding on the middle ring. It has all the gears I usually need for anything from 0-25 mph, and with a 9/10 speed cassette the gear spacing is entirely acceptable. But because it's a triple, I have a serious granny gear I can drop down to when needed for steep climbs, and I have a big ring I can jump up to on the exceptionally rare occasions when I want to go faster than 25 mph and am not satisfied with how quickly the hill I'm riding down is getting me there.

So what improvement does a compact double offer?

seypat

I even have a triple that I only ride one time a year at this event. I try to ride a different bike each year but use my "SOTR" crank and chain. The rear cluster may vary some but the chain is the right size to work. It's a great ride. I suffer mightily on the main climb. Some of the other Mid Atlantic C & Vers and I do it. The 75 and 100 routes are the same till the 65 mile mark. Check it out and maybe you can join us.

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/2442705

https://www.ymcacva.org/storming-thunder-ridge

Hproduguidon

Eddy merckx 1982

rccardr 

1983 Davidson custom. People who have ridden with me would consider this pretty fast.

Andy_K 

52-42-36?

My only problem with triples is that it's hard to make a triple work and look good with a vintage Campagnolo setup like this. I've got a 52-42-28 crank on my De Rosa with a 14-30T freewheel in the rear, but that requires the Soma long cage for the Nuovo Record rear derailleur, which looks kind of ugly and the front doesn't shift well from the small ring to the middle. On my Gios, I'm using Super Record like you have here with a 49-42-32 in front and I think 14-26 in the back. That looks good and shifts well, but it doesn't have quite the low-end gearing I'd like for all topography.

thook

short cage with a triple??? you rebel!!

rccardr 

Andy, have you looked at the Velo Orange Grand Cru triple? It's more Stronglight-ish than Shimano-ish and might fit in more easily with Campagnolo components.
Since it's a 110/74 BCD, you could go down to a 24 granny and stick with a 28 out back, possibly eliminating the need for the long cage. Wrap might not work as it would be WAY out of spec, but worth a try.

Personally, I finally gave up on trying to make things do other than they were intended and went with the right tool for the job: Deore RD and FD, Sugino triple with 48-36-24 rings, and a 12-34 out back.
Now it shifts from one ring to the next like buttah, both up and down.

hsuBM

with my CD bike in start-stop or out on country roads, it’s effectively a two speed. I pick a cog depending on how much wind and which way it’s blowing and just hi-lo it as needed and nearly never touch the rear derailer unless I hit a steep hill and need to bail out. It’s 51&34, I think.

My touring bike bike has a triple because I’m a dork for straight chainline and nearly only use that bike on mountainous rides.

Andy_K 

It's a nice looking crank, and I definitely like the gearing. I hadn't really thought about whether the 24T small ring would let me use a short cage derailleur in the rear. The bikes that I'm trying to keep vintage, like the Gios and the De Rosa, I'm also trying to keep as close to period correct as I can while still being able to use them for more than just very flat rides. So, I don't know if I'd be happy putting a VO crank on those bikes even if it did look right-ish. I guess it's no worse than the ugly NR RD with Soma long cage.

I agree 100% with this. Most of my bikes have 10-speed drivetrains with Campy Racing T derailleurs and cranks. That works great and doesn't look entirely out of place on a classic steel bike. I do like the look of the components on your Davidson.

SurferRosa

Folks need gears lower than 34" (36t x 28t) on their "go fast" bike? Y'all must do some serious climbing.