-
My problem with triples is the installation and adjusting of the front derailleur. It's a total pain in the arse if it's not dead straight. Had problems for about a year with mine before I finally got it in the right place. Even then it still rubbed a bit in the top gear, and if I moved the high limit screw the chain would pop off. (Braze on might be better.) Doubles are obviously easier to adjust because there's only two positions and you have two limit screws.
Either way I changed my triple groupset because I couldn't get a low enough gear (30 front and 28 rear was the biggest I could do). I suppose technically that was due to the derailleur not the triple. I could maybe have found a compatible MTB rear derailleur and swapped the cassette but the jumps between gears are even more pronounced with 8-speed and because of the front derailleur you can't cross chain as much with a triple. I now have 10-speed SRAM with double chainrings and an MTB derailleur and have far more options for gear range. Currently have 50/34 and 11-36 - mental for road riding but after doing some days with well over a km of climbing, 20% gradients and 20kg of camping gear this summer I really don't think you can have too low a gear.
(Will probably swap to a 11-32 for normal riding and just use the 11-36 for touring. Unfortunately the Shimano 11-32 cassette I bought doesn't fit on my wheel whilst a SRAM one does? Very strange.)
You are reading a single comment by @frankenbike and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
frankenbike
I don't know. Everyone is rushing to get rid of the front derailleur it seems. In some cases this (1x) makes sense to me. But I'm stubborn and I think triples are a part of touring. Especially with 9 speed, you don't want jumps that are too big between gears. And I like 9 speed because it feels robust and is cheap to replace (snapped a rear derailleur a year ago while touring, which I replaced the next day).
I've used both my lowest gear (30x32) and my highest (50x11) regularly during my last tour. On the flats I'm mostly in the middle ring (39t) and in the middle of the cassette. I guess you could get rid of the outer ring, hence why I think super compact chainsets are interesting.
50/39/30 x 11-32.