Yahoo discussions

From my standpoint- at about 215 lbs I'm sure I could ride a compact up all our little hills but I'm happy with my triple. In fact, I prefer the triple on my Paramount because it had a 28 on the back and gave me quite a bit more ability to sit and spin on hills. I'll have to count teeth on both the Trek and the Paramount and see- but I know I'm standing up a lot more on the Trek.

As far as riders looking down on others with triples, I simply take my hat off to anyone who tries to ride up Everett, Columbia, Snowville, Martin, Boston Mills West side, and the crazy steep Hines Hill and Oak Hill. In fact, I look on anyone who gets out there and rides as better than those who sit at home and watch TV. At least we're out there doing it.

Why do hills? Because nothing pushes you like a hill. Sure, you can ride intervals or into headwinds but on a hill you can push yourself to your absolute maximum. I know- because I'm usually at that point and watching the hammerheads disappear not to be seen again until the Winking Lizard. But I don't care- I feel great if I know I did my best.

Some of you may have seen my post on Facebook on my ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. Basically it was a 35 mile mostly uphill ride (then 35 miles mostly downhill). Funny thing- after riding these local hills I was never anywhere near as stressed as I am going up something like Columbia at my best pace. On the Parkway I was simply able to stay at a nice pace on the 5-7% grades- the valley hills had prepared me well.

So laugh or not at triples or at our "little" hills here, they are sufficient to get you in shape to ride most anywhere.

More or less, Joe said triples are for folks who are touring, overweight, or have a history of bad knees would benefit from the use of a triple. The problem with that statement is that there isn't much difference between a triple and a compact double when you compare them both to a traditional double crank.

Here's the deal: Triples usually come with a 52, 42, 30 set of rings, or possibly the 53, 39, 30 set of rings.
Traditional Doubles come with a 53, 39 set of rings.

If there's anyone running a triple and a rear cassette that has a 28 for the largest ring, I'd be very surprised if anyone other than the strongest riders could make their way up Everett (9-10% grade), Martin (14-15% grade), or Oak Hill (20% grade) without calling on Granny to help them up the hill. I have a bike with a 53 x 39 on the front and a 26T on the back and found myself walking up Bellus on one of the Thursday rides, and on Martin and Oak Hill, I was sitting, standing, sitting, standing, up and down more times than I'd do in church. It's just not practical.

Enter the compact double. The 50, 34 combination of gears that folks choose when they want "triple-like" gearing without the additional weight and complexity of 3 rings on the front crank. Also, as the bikes went from 8 to 9 to 10 gears on the cassette, we started to find out that there's a lot of overlap between the gear combinations on the triple. In other words, you could probably find 2 or 3 of the same gear ratios on the big ring as you would the middle ring, and the same thing between the middle ring and the small ring. The compact solves this by spreading out the gears and reducing the overlap between the rings.

So, since a "traditional" double has a 39, and a compact double has a 34, doesn't that mean that you're still "wimping out" with the compact double when you use the 34? While 34 is still not 30 or 28, maybe we could call it the "great granny" gear, or "really old Mom" gear, or the crazy Aunt gear.

Now, Heidi missed the mark big time with her remarks that us hammerheads look down on other riders who have triples. Heck no. We don't judge riders by their bikes, no do we pay attention to what gears they use. Say you're going up Everett in a group. Do I look around and see what gear everyone's in? No. If I look down at the drivetrain on bikes behind me or along side me, I'll probably wipe out. If I'm looking at the rider ahead of me, and I see them in their granny gear, do I start laughing? Heck no - the rider is ahead of me! That's what I'm concerned about - it doesn't matter how they got there.

If I was first up the hill, I take some pride in that as a climber and a hammerhead, but it's never looking down at the other riders or thinking less of them. If they get up the hill before me and take pride in that, well, good for them! Riders are my friends. I love to go outside and play with me friends :)