smasha

I've got a pending order on a commuter/touring bike, with 2x10 gearing: 44-32t chainring and 11-42 cassette.

Same 700c wheels, same or close enough tires, so the overall gearing range is pretty much the same as my older 3x9, which is 44-36-26 with an 11-34 cassette.

On the older bike, the top end of the gear range is about right: I can give it a little extra going down hills.

On the older bike, the bottom end of the gear range is lacking: Going uphill with loaded panniers, I wish I had 1-2 more lower gears.

So I'm kind of thinking about keeping the bike as a 2x10, and having it built with a smaller crankset, or at least a smaller inner chainring. Keeping it as a 2x10 seems like parts will be easier to find over the next few years.

OTOH, I'm kind of thinking about having it built as a 3x10, swapping out the shifter, derailleur, and crankset. A 44-36-26 crankset would be a dream, but would a 3x10 setup be setting myself up for pain, trying to maintain it over the next several years?

I think I want the smallest chainring no more than 28t, and I think I want the largest chainring at least 40t or 42t.

Just looking for thoughts, opinions, and ideas, from people who spend more time than I do thinking about and building these kinds of things.

Also, where can I even buy this stuff today? Even getting my hands on a 38-24t crankset is proving to be a lot harder than I thought it would be.

I'm looking for parts that are give-or-take Deore range (durable, not too heavy, not a target for theft), with no preference for Shimano. 170 or 175mm crank-arms; I'm thinking lower gearing my lend itself well to 170.

Yan 

I use a 24-36 double crankset on my touring bike. Can't imagine why I'd ever need a faster gear than the 36. I can't push that gear on flat ground. If I'm going downhill I'm coasting.

hokiefyd 

I really like triples for how I ride (with an upright commuter/touring riding position). I use the chain rings for gross changes in speed range and then think of the cassette as a way to trim or tailor my cadence. Slow poke around the neighborhood or boardwalk (or large hill)? I'm down in the small ring. Most moderate speed riding? I'm in the middle ring. Sustained faster riding where I may have a strong tailwind or slight downhill? Shift up into the large ring (which is only 42 or 44 on my bikes). Then I tailor my cadence with shifting the rear cassette. I actually find this very intuitive and easy to manage because there really aren't any large steps in ratio or cadence (this is where I like having that super small ring -- for small cadence steps while spinning up a hill). Yes, gear ratios are duplicated in some areas, but that doesn't really matter to me. I prefer the smaller cadence steps on a close(r) ratio rear cassette and I use the front rings to change the range.

I do most of my riding in the middle ring and traverse the whole cassette in the middle ring. For my bikes with indexed shifters, I adjust the indexing of the front derailer so that I can ride the whole cassette in the middle ring without any derailer cage noise. This usually means a slight bit of chain drag in the big-small combination (top gear), but I'm very rarely in that top-most gear. That may also mean a slight drag in the small-small combination (which I don't ride in anyway), and maybe the small-big combination (low gear)...again, I'm rarely in the absolute lowest gear much anyway. I shoot for not having to use any of the gearing extremes, which is why I really like triples -- I can usually stay in the middle two thirds of the cassette and cover pretty much all of my riding situations.

I usually shoot for a gear inches range of about 20 on the lower end to about 100 on the higher end. I can very easily get that with a triple and an 11-28/32 cassette. This usually puts the middle ring's gear inch range at about 35-85 (ish). That's a great target for most commuter/touring riding. Then the granny gear and "big" gear are available for those "fringe" situations that happen often enough to where you want to have those ranges, but not often enough to where you want to optimize for those slowest or fastest regimes.

I work with 7/8/9-speed systems, and this stuff is pretty widely available. Triple cranksets in this range are out there, cassettes are readily available, chains are inexpensive, etc.

If you're considering doing a 3x configuration, I'd do it. I think the operation ends up being very flexible and intuitive and parts are pretty easy to find. You don't mention what type of shifting you intend to use...indexed or friction, drop bar style or flat bar, bar ends, etc. That may play into your decision to some degree. You have a lot of flat bar options. I'm not as familiar with drop bar options for this setup, but others may be able to help if you're truly interested in this as a potential course of action.

smasha

1- If you don't tell us about the cassette, a 24-36 double crankset has no context.

2- If I were touring, I might be inclined to agree, but this will get more use as a daily ride, commuter, and grocery-getter.

smasha

Yeah, that's how I conceptualise it, with three "ranges" on the front derailleur, and "fine tuning" on the rear derailleur.

But, compared to how you describe your tuning and riding style, I tend to be more conscious of moving the chain in or out on both the front and rear derailleurs as I shift. This may be especially important with a wide-range (11-42) cassette paired with a wider range crankset; small-small could be too much slack, and large-large could be not enough chain.

Yeah, 3x is kind of easy to find now, but 3x seems to be going out of fashion, and 3x10 was never in fashion. So doing it today might be feasible, but maintaining it over time…? Long-term maintenance is a concern.

For me, it's indexed shifting, flat bars.

Yan 

We are talking about top speed gearing. Every modern cassette has a 10 or 11t small cog. What context do you need?

36-11 combo is about 24 mph. I can't push that speed even if I'm carry nothing on the bike. I don't see a need for higher gearing.

Crankycrank

Even with all the super wide gearing available now with doubles, I still prefer a triple so that you can run a closer ratio cogset with smaller jumps between shifts. If setup properly and good quality, a triple isn't much more, if any, faff than a double.

hokiefyd 

What is your gear inches range target?

This is only a guess, but I'd think you'd use a narrower range cassette if going with a 3x crank. For instance, Microshift sells 11-28, 11-32, and 11-36 10-speed cassettes. And Jenson actually has them for about half price right now: https://www.jensonusa.com/Microshift-10-Speed-Cassette And you can find 11-28 Shimano 105 10-speed cassettes as well.

And...this isn't at all to talk you out of 10-speed...but, are you wanting 10-speed for something different? Your original post sounds like you might be able to have the bike custom built with a 3x instead of a 2x...does the same apply to the number of rear cassette sprockets? Your world of parts availability would probably open up quite a bit if doing 3x9. Again, just another potential option. I agree that 3x10 was never all that popular, though you could probably use a derailer intended for a 3x9 setup pretty easily. I think SLX had 3x10 front derailers some years back.

You could probably use a 3x9 front derailer anyway...especially if you wanted to friction shift the front with a thumb shifter. I have a couple of bikes with thumbs, with friction front and indexed rear. That seems to be my favorite type of shifting combination.

esasjl

Two of my bikes (ATB/expedition/26") are 10-speed cassettes used in a hilly area (up to 25%) with little in the way of flat road. My cassette of choice is Shimano's 11-42 (M4100) that I find has a nice gear progression across the range for my use. The expedition is a double (46-26, modded FSA 46-30) and the ATB a triple (48-36-24, Andel RSC6). I use the triple as previously described, 90% middle ring, big ring for tail wind and downhill, small ring for steep gradients (often on bridleways with this bike), headwinds and loads. Front changes are not made that often and are easy and reliable except for some occasional chain-suck. Using the wide-range double is completely different. Most of the time is spent in the big ring, with the change to the small ring (~ 40 kg groceries on a Sunday morning) being reliable. You then stay in the small ring much longer than on the triple and the change to the big ring needs care to avoid pushing the chain over and off the big ring. There is often the need to double shift because of the large chainring difference. I'm still getting used to the double, but on balance the triple has a more usable shift pattern; all are friction-shift (thumb and DT) which I think is generally better at the front anyway. My 700c 'road' bikes are 3x6 (55-43-30 / 13-34) and 3x7 (51-41-30/ 12-34), gearing that works well for me under my road conditions.

cyccommute 

Once the bike is set up, there is very little needed in terms of maintenance. Shifters will last almost forever…I’m running shifters from the early 2000s that have many thousands of shifts on them and I expect to keep using them for many years to come. You can probably find a good used 9 speed XT crank for cheap that will do what you want with some chain ring changes. Getting cassettes and chains won’t be a problem for a very long time…we can still get 7 speed cassettes and those went out of fashion in the early 90s.

It’s not hard to confirmed a bike for what you want to do. The only issue I’ve run across is getting the crank inboard enough so that a road front derailer can shift to the outside ring on the mountain crank…they are a bit wider than road cranks. It’s trivial with an external bottom bracket, however. Just move all the spacers to the nondrive side.

70sSanO

This is really simple. Your old bike is 44-36-26 and the new bike is 44-32.

How much do you ride in the 44t on the current bike?

It should be most of the time, because that is where you will be on the new bike.

John

mirfi

What range in Gear Inches are you going for?

A low of 20 and a high of 110?

If you want to run numbers, this helps;

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/gear-calc.html

:-)

csport

The rear shifter/derailleur are the same for 2x/3x.
If you use a friction shifter for the front (anyway, MTB indexed triple shifters do not have the trimming brifters have) you can use 8s or 9s front derailleur, those are not going anywhere.

If you build the bike with a 3x10, use a cassette with smaller gear steps (11-36 or 11-32) as hokiefyd or Crankycrank said.

Steel Charlie

I have a 2x9 CX bike I use for market runs - sometimes w/ a trailer. I'm seriously considering going to a triple. Old XT and XTR stuff is so available it's not even funny. Buy enough for two bikes and you'll have enough for the rest of your life.

70sSanO

Have to a bit careful with 9 speed XTR cranks (M950/951) because they use spiders. I think the M750 also uses spiders.

When I was looking at a road triple, I went with the Ultegra 6503 and not the Dura Ace 7703 because the inner ring mounted to the middle ring.

I figured that once they were gone, so was the crank.

John