tomato coupe

And the reason for that is ... the general public currently has very little interest in station wagons (or triple cranksets).

seypat

Does electronic shifting keep track of what gear you're in? If it does, I'm guessing since you got the hang of it, others can including Larry. What did you do before you had gear indication? I'm guessing you looked at your cogs to see what gear you were in.

spelger

I look down quite frequently, I hardly ever know what gear I am in. And why should I care nominally? When it matters I look, otherwise I crank away in blissful ignorance.

big john

With compact doubles and 11 or 12 speed clusters you can easily have a low gear that's lower than the road triples of the past. But to answer your question, sure, racers and/or very strong century type riders have been able to do everything on standard doubles.

My Ultegra triple came with a 30x25 low gear. Many modern compacts come with a 34x34.

Chuck M 

Riding a bike is just like riding a bike. It all comes back to you but you can't remember how many chainrings you have.

LarrySellerz

On some of my bikes I don't know unless I check religiously, but im so used to 3x7 that I always know what gear im in. I also know the number of teeth on all of my gears and can tell you exactly what ratio im riding. like 2-5 is 38x18 and I know this without having to think about it. Some people I ride with, who are very experienced, tend to cross their chain more than me. I'm very anal about chain crossing. Its usually when they stay in the big chainring and just go up the cassette without really thinking about it. Its hard to know if youre crossing your chain unless you are very aware of what gear you are in

genejockey 

Well, you can shift from the middle ring to the BB shell under load pretty easily....

genejockey 

If you have brifters and a Hyperglide or equivalent cassette, it's WAY easier to shift the back under load. Just lighten your pedal stroke for half a turn and, and 3 clicks of the lever, and you're there. If you're trying to do it with DT levers and no Hyperglide, yeah, it sucks.

LarrySellerz

I killed both of my cheap hybrids (giant escape, 7 speed freewheel) by shifting under load in the last year and a half. One is probably not too bad to fix but the other's derailleur was destroyed, both bikes had the chain so badly jammed between the cassette and frame that i couldn't get it out. I used a chain brake tool to remove a link and was able to get one out, but the other I think is toast. Sure both bikes had other problems, but shifting under load was the nail in the coffin

genejockey 

Yes. Simple as that. Especially now with 11-34 cassettes, or even wider. With that, you can do something like Old La Honda with an average cadence in the mid 80s, in 25 minutes.

genejockey 

There's an old Henny Youngman joke that's appropriate here:
"I went to my doctor. I said, 'It hurts when I go like that.' He said, 'Don't go like that.'"

Carbonfiberboy 

We did a pass climb on our tandem, ~110 miles into the ride, where the last 4 miles to the pass took an hour. 26/34 gear IIRC. I was 69, my wife 66, still young. Just keep turning the cranks, nothing to it, eh?

N2deep

Not the organized race. The Dirty Dozen Race is an exceptional event for the young and talented, not old Fred's like me. Love watching this race!

Do they still put on the race? Is Danny still with us?

PeteHski

Looks exactly like my local terrain. 1x13 would work fine for me. I very nearly went down that route on my new bike, but ended up with a 2x12 which actually has slightly less overall range than the 1x13 I was considering. It does have tighter gaps on the cassette, but there really isn't that much in it. I wouldn't even consider a triple with a modern 11/12-speed drivetrain. Look at it this way - It would be the equivalent of you considering a 4x or even 5x setup on your bike.

mcours2006

You should try using this bike for your next climbing group ride instead of your single speed.

PeteHski

Even more amazing is how people who haven't bought a new bike in decades try to tell you that their old bike is technically superior to anything on the market today.

N2deep

Interesting points, however I believe the elimination of the triples is related to suppliers/manufacturers need to evolve the market and to keep new products on the shelf. I would not be surprised to see them polished-packaged and presented as the new snake oil in a few years. I love the 2X 11/12 speeds on road bikes but they suck in the mountains unless specifically geared but then they are no fun on the faster roads. IMHO, the triples are the best group sets ever

GhostRider62

I have a V8 German station wagon and a couple of bikes with triples on them.

Neither get much use these days.

seypat

Once the computer completely takes over shifting the FD, the industry will probably go this way. Things are getting crowded on the rear of the bike. The rider won't care as long as the ratios are provided. Even if they do, it won't matter. Evolution will happen, regardless.

big john

Shimano still offers triple cranksets in road and mtb groups. I'm sure there are others.

I have a 1x on my mtb with an 11 speed cassette. I don't need a high gear for off road and I never noticed the big gaps in the cassette until I started doing some road rides on it. There, the gaps are dramatic.

mstateglfr 

Your post offered no indication that it was in jest. No emoji, no 'jk', no sarcasterisks.
Not sure why you would think anyone would 'of course' view it in jest.
It's especially funny when you the asd in that only half was in jest. When you have to explain that much, it wasnt obvious.

TakingMyTime

Ok, I'll play....
I like road triples. I especially like my Trek 5200 with the Shimano 6503 Crankset (52/42/30). It has never let me down or wanting for something else.

Fredo76

That is the current problem with these pages, indeed with BF, IMO. Too much scoffing.

F' scoffers.

DangerousDanR

I have had a couple of triples. Both were rigid mountain bikes. Both were primarily ridden off road. I almost never used the large ring, except as a bash guard. All of my current off road bikes are 1X. Both have 11-50 tooth cassettes. One is 11 and one is 12 speed. They both work just fine.

The tandem is set up as a 1X9 with an 11-50 Box cassette and a fairly small front ring. Absolute maximum pedaling speed is 28 MPH which is enough for how we use it.

My road bikes have always been doubles. Even when I lived where there were real mountains. Both of my current regular rides use a 39-52. One has an 11-27 and the other has an 11-32.

The only hills I ever see here on the plains are overpasses or parking ramps. These are both relatively short so they are not a problem.

What we do have is WIND. On a recent day we took the tandem out for a ride going into a 28/G40 wind. Rode this for 6 miles. Then we turned so the wind was our friend but not a direct tail wind.

Later that day I went out on the 11-32 bike for a group ride into the now 33/G44 MPH wind. This time for 8 miles before turning.

I never found myself wanting an easier gear and I never had to use the largest gear on the cassette except to get rolling.

For me, a triple is the answer to a question I have never asked. If you want one, go ahead and get one. I can see the attraction on a solo touring bike.

Very low gears for long steep climbs and high gears for places where you want to ride at a fast pace. But my 1X dinner plate on the tandem gives us pretty close to that, without having the front derailleur to deal with when I take it out of its cases and assemble it.

​​​​​​When I go touring it is on the tandem, and it is very rare that the practical limit of 25MPH is not sufficient.

genejockey 

Riding my old bikes, I get why triples were popular BITD. Most of them came with 52/42 x 13-24 AT MOST. I replaced most of them with 13-26. I can do hills with those, but it's a chore and it can't be more than about 10 minutes or so. The one that came with 13-32 has yawning chasms between its 6 cogs, where I can choose between 110rpm and 80.

But now, with 10 or 11 speeds and 30, 32, or even 34t largest cogs, not to mention compact cranksets, I don't feel the need. At the moment, I don't want anything smaller than the 36x34 I have available on one of my bikes. I even find that too small on lots of hills where I use the lowest gear on the other bikes.