Age... Compact or triple?

[Dekonick]

Knees are getting older... The time has come.

Triple or compact? Change crank arm length? Just curious what everyone else has done with success. At present, I run 172.5 52/36 with 13/29 or 12/25 Campy 10.

[jtakeda]

Personally I’d go compact but if you go triple for the lower gears I have a chorus 10 triple crank I’m ready to list

[Dekonick]

Originally Posted by jtakeda

Personally I’d go compact but if you go triple for the lower gears I have a chorus 10 triple crank I’m ready to list

PM me I am looking for a triple. Square taper?

[ultraman6970]

I have an edco triple moving around with the edco triple sealed BB (italian)

[Dave]

Triples are no longer made by Campy and their shifters no longer support a triple FD. Consider that latest Chorus 12 with a 48/32 and 11-34 cassette. I switched both of my bikes recently and it works great. Having a low gear of 32/34 is lower than the triples I used in the past.

I've had a triple with a 28/29 low, but the new compact is just a bit lower.

[buddybikes]

What's your chainstay length? 410 would be bit too much angle, longer chainstay will help that issue.

Of course what riding type, kind of roads you ride etc all affect the decision
It's not just the crankset of course if going down that road. Compact double will probably slam on their without other investments.

[redir]

Triples can be very fussy with shifting. I think they are a thing of the past now. With 11-speed, long cage RD, you can get just about all the gears that a triple can. And if you come to the worlds steepest climb then just walk

[Dekonick]

Just one of those old farts who rides mostly solo. Hills all around my house.

[jtakeda]

Originally Posted by redir

Triples can be very fussy with shifting. I think they are a thing of the past now. With 11-speed, long cage RD, you can get just about all the gears that a triple can. And if you come to the worlds steepest climb then just walk

I never had any issues with setting up a triple. Everything worked perfect.

My only gripe was I had a 3rd bottle cage and the smallest ring would interfere with water bottles

[Ken Robb]

I've never had a problem shifting triples from Campy or Shimano. The only compact I had was 50-34 Ritchey cranks with 9 speed Veloce/Chorus/Record mix with 12-26 9 speed Campy cassette and it worked fine too. I also enjoyed a 48-38-28 TA Zephyr with 10 speed Chorus and 13-29 cogs. I still have the 24 tooth cog in the original package because I didn't need to go that low. Most of my bikes with triples had longish chainstays and they probably helped by reducing chain angles.

My last remaining road bike is my Riv. Rambouillet with 6503 Ultegra triple 52-42-30 and 12-27 cassette. I spend a lot of time spinning along in the 42 ring and the middle of the cassette saving the 52 for downhills and tailwinds and the 30 for steeper hills than I can manage in the 42.

With 50-34 and 11-26 9 speed I found some gaps and/or slightly awkward shift points but I wasn't racing so that didn't really matter. Maybe a compact with 11 or 12 cogs would eliminate those gaps but I haven't tried any of that new-fangled stuff.

[thwart]

Originally Posted by steveandbarb1

What's your chainstay length? 410 would be bit too much angle, longer chainstay will help that issue.

400 mm chainstays. Couldn't fit anything larger than a 23 mm tire without rubbing the FD band. And yet that Record triple worked great.

The upturned stem, not so much.

With 10 spd Campy, I thought the front shifting was actually very good and surprisingly easy to master. We've all become accustomed to a 16 tooth chainring difference in the typical compact drivetrain... a 10 or even 13 tooth difference makes for better shifting performance.

[zmudshark]

Old guy here. If you are sticking with 10s, go triple, if 11-12, compact.

I do not like the double shifting on a compact that I seem to have to do.

[Dekonick]

My last experience with a compact was a long time ago - I think it was Campy 9 speed with a FSA compact. It sucked.

[Dekonick]

Originally Posted by thwart

400 mm chainstays. Couldn't fit anything larger than a 23 mm tire without rubbing the FD band. And yet that Record triple worked great.

The upturned stem, not so much.

With 10 spd Campy, I thought the front shifting was actually very good and surprisingly easy to master. We've all become accustomed to a 16 tooth chainring difference in the typical compact drivetrain... a 10 or even 13 tooth difference makes for better shifting performance.

Sharp looking bike.

[donevwil]

I put a triple on my wife's bike (Campy 10). It has the same range as her previous 2x did, but with much smaller jumps (obviously). She is now more likely to have the right gear which has enabled her to more consistently hold a pace.

I love triples, unfortunately my bum knee can't tolerate the increased Q factor.