Triples Are Great, Change My Mind
Vložit
- čas přidán 31. 05. 2024
- In the past little while, we've seen a genuine resurgence of interest in Triple Cranksets. While 1x systems dominate the cycling scene, there's a compelling case for the enduring appeal of triple setups and I thought it would be a good idea to talk triples, compatibility, and installation.
Why Triple Cranksets?
-Our Triple Cranksets provide unmatched versatility for touring cyclists, offering a wide gear range to conquer diverse terrains.
Weight Advantage
-Contrary to common belief, our Triple Cranksets hold their own in the weight department, with the overall difference being within grams of a wide-range 1x.
Gear Range and Practicality
-Triple systems excel in providing a lower gear for steep inclines and offer a more seamless cadence adjustment with smaller cog gaps.
Simplicity and Effectiveness
-While 1x systems boast simplicity, the emphasis on constant shifting may be overstated. Many riders find themselves primarily using the middle ring, operating as a 1x system with added flexibility to adapt to different terrain.
Products featured:
Polyvalent Diamond Frameset: velo-orange.com/collections/p...
VO Triple Crankset: velo-orange.com/collections/c...
English Threaded Bottom Bracket (124mm): velo-orange.com/collections/b...
Metallic Shift Cable Kit: velo-orange.com/collections/s...
Dia-Compe Downtube Shifters: velo-orange.com/collections/s...
I've been using triples since the 70s. No reason to stop now.
3x9 is still the perfect drive train in my opinion. Simple, reliable, and cheap.
i am running an Alivio 22-32-44 and will never give up that low gear!
Whole heartedly agree! I’m rolling 24-34-42 with an 11-36 cassette. Plenty of highs and lows for anything I encounter and the ten tooth jumps on the crank makes for a good “bailout” when you need it. Also the components are affordable, strong and widely interchangeable!
I've kept my triples too. The return to triples is a grassroots movement that flies in the face of what the manufacturers want us to buy. On the other hand there are plenty of good front derailleurs for sale from the people that drank the 1x Kool Aid.
Oh boy. The 20 year old 3x9 Deore Lx with 22/32/44 I had up to last year had the best drivetrain of any bike I owned. I feel like gravel bikes and touring bikes should come with 3x9. The new shimano cue 2x11 has similar range so I am waiting to see that. Maybe it can help fill the void in my life that selling the 3x9 made.
I like those older triples with the 64mm BCD, you can even fit a 20T small cog on there:
czcams.com/video/tPbru0dAdmU/video.htmlsi=Wk3BY6A6fKzqGlH3
I run 3x10, now with a 900% gear range.
Or you can find an old Sugino Impel triple crankset with 42-32-20t chainring then pair it with a 7 speed cheap shimano cassette 12-32t. It's even lower. And cheaper lol.
I'm using this ratio on my Trek 520 now.
Got a bike with 1x11 and was a bit disappointed, so 4 months in converted it to a wide range double - absolutely love it now! With a bar end friction for the front mech and indexed at the rear I can go anywhere on that thing!
I need to find a way to put a front mech mount on my new lefty- that I didn’t actually want. I’d rather have the 3x10 on the bike that was taken out by a driver.
I use 3x8 for my touring bike.
Front: 22/32/44 (XT crank, little Ring Shimano steel, middle ring Surley steel, big ring Aluminium Stronglight)
Rear: 11 to 32 (old XTR!)
XT 7 Speed Front derailleur and XTR 8 Speed Rear derailleur with dumbies
Thousands of kilometres, never a problem 😀
Sounds like a great set up
"3X ain't dead" is my mantra, I have a 3x9 and a 3x7, they're my 2 most ridden bikes!
My last experience with gears was a 90s MTB(later turned commuter with 1" slicks) with 3X7. I think that was a good system, no extreme chainline issues or too thin chains.
Yes, I'm in the triple camp. 3X8 versatile and the most robust chain of the multispeeds. Skip the indexed left shifter and trim out any front shift. Also, it permits "dumping" the chain onto the bail- out gear. For me, the evolving of the complexity of bike transmissions stops here. The 90s sure was a good time!
I completely share your opinion.
Yeah but bike and component makers/sellers need you to get hooked on the latest, greatest thing because they need the money.!!!@@KarlosEPM
Touring bikes had to make do with hand-me-downs from the mountain bike market. As soon as MTBs grew out of road bike tubing and got fat with weird frame geometry, road bike triples had a brief and schizophrenic existence. They were generally too highly geared (like 50-40-30, or 52-42-32), eliminating much of the range advantage of a triple chainset. Quality front MTB changers wouldn't fit and spacers restricted the throw, leaving the tourist to hunt down and experiment with old stock in the hope it would nudge the chain in the right places, while being in walking distance of the big ring. Even today, a dedicated touring groupset has yet to be made.
@@KarlosEPM Thanks, we are not alone. Thankfully there are a few like Velo Orange that serve us in the niche market. We know the mainstream bike industry doesn't . Cheers! Enjoy the ride!
I'd rather have a double than a triple. I went from a triple, then to a 1X, eventually found that double is the best for me. Sold all my old parts so i basically have no parts bin.
single seems all about aesthetics, not weight. As Grant Petersen says, "you are the heaviest thing on your bike".
I heard it was for "simplicity". Because shifting is so very complicated. 🙄
Well, simplicity _is_ an argument in favour of 1× for MTB: fewer moving parts to clank around, get covered in mud and obstructing the suspension. I still prefer the versatility of 2× though, particularly for hardtails that are used both on- and offroad.
In my eyes these modern, huge cassettes for 1x drive trains are extremely ugly. A huge step back in aesthetics.
I love my Campy racing triple. Amazing how tolerant of derailleur adjustment a 9 speed is.
I love my triple racing too.
Triples are great for certain bikes. My loaded touring bike started as 3x7 half step plus granny. Now it is 3x10. With changes in shifters, both derailleurs, cassette, rings, and chain. Same crank arms, bottom bracket, and same rear hub. It will climb any mountain with ease and has all the right middle gears for 99% of riding. Also have a triple on a road bike. 52-42-24 rings and 13-28 nine speed rear cassette. Perfect for any mountainous ride. I've taken it several times on week long mountain rides. Also works perfect for everyday riding with the good sized outer and middle rings. Triple cranks are right for many bikes.
I have this exact VO triple on my Soma Pescadero rando build. I love it! It's so beautiful and classically styled. Really great quality build, and it provides me with all the gearing I could possibly need. I have it set up 3x9 with microshift derailleurs and friction shifters and it's fantastic, my favorite drive train on any of my bikes. Simple, beautiful, functional, perfect.
I would have cleaned up those older Deore parts. Make them match the beautiful new parts on the beautiful new bike. The new shifter you will take about in the next video is bad azz.
I did, lol. You should have seen them before I cleaned them up.
Our tandem has the old Ultegra 3X9 with 11-32 on the back. We got it used and we're not a powerful team, so I shrank the granny to 24, and after adding some shims on the granny, it reliably shifts from the 24 to the 42. It opened up more route options for us.
I moved from the Cotswolds in England where a compact double (50/34) with 11-28 was fine for all but the toughest hills on the road to northern Lancashire, near the Lake District, where there’s plenty of easy, flattish gradients interspersed with some monster hills - especially in the Lakes. Factor in ageing, much more hill climbing and rougher, windier weather, and a 10, 9 or even 8 speed triple just feels more fun to ride. Small weight penalty, but it’s made up for by not having to grind up hills like I could when I was 30 😂
I reckon some people get put off using triples because they find the extra chainring fiddly to get used to.
I'm weary of reaching for the front derailleur shift lever. I'm going back to a double, but done smart: 45/28 front and 13-28 rear (7 speed). For loaded touring the front might be 42/24. Unless I'm climbing, most of the time the chain will stay in the big ring, and I don't need a long-cage rear derailleur. It's not perfect, but it's simple, and it's enough now that I no longer race.
The Ultegra 3x10 was great. The front derailleur was reliable, and each front ring combined with the middle cogs of the back cassette produced a highly useable gear. It always felt smooth and efficient.
Still rocking 105-5700 3x10 with barends on my touring bike. Don't think I'll ever change those out.
For cost, reliability, and specifically simplicity, I'm running a 48/38/28 with a 14-28 7 speed cassette. But why does this triple work better for me, instead of smaller chainrings?
It's because (and here comes the simplicity bit) I use the middle 38 ring as a 1x, and only use the inner and outer rings to give me one lower gear, or one higher gear. A lot of folks struggle to run up and down the gears using a triple, but using them in the way I have described makes things very easy indeed, effectively giving me 9 gears to choose from, without ever having to look down and see what gear I'm in. I get the simplicity of a 1x (by just using my middle 38 ring), with the added bonus of a wider range,
More by luck than judgement, I jumped off the "gears arms race" 40 years ago, when it got to 7 speed indexed, and I'm glad I did, because everything works really reliably, is very cheap, and lasts a very long time. I use Deore front and rear derailleurs, plus matching indexed thumb shifters, but I carry a simple friction down tube lever in my spares kit, just in case I have to jerry-rig an alternative gear change if I'm on tour. By sticking to this gear set-up, I've not really needed to buy anything, other than a chain and cassette every 10,000 miles or so, for a total price of around £20. In other words, a tiny fraction of the cost of modern 1x systems.
For all riding apart from racing, this is all most people need.
Back in the 9 speed days, I used to have a Campagnolo Chorus gruppo with a “Racing T” triple. I’ve always been a natural climber (135lbs, 5’8”, no sprint to speak of, but able to maintain 80RPM for hours) and I wanted more gears so I could keep my cadence up my favorite climbs, so I had it built up that way - 27 speeds with a 30 tooth small front chainring and a 29 largest cog in the back. I think this was right at the start of the high cadence movement in pro cycling but I wasn’t that into racing… I just knew I liked the high cadence and I was MUCH faster uphill in those gears.
EDIT: I also had a Cannondale ST800 touring bike with a Suntour 3x6 and a 28 front / 32 back smallest gear. What a joy that was. Not nearly as fast as the Racing T setup on my road bike, but I remember training with bricks in my panniers (what an idiot.)
I'm sold. Just converted my bike to 3x10 with a Velo Orange triple. I can make it up that steep hill to get to my house now, no matter how long of a ride I take.
1X drivetrains are another bike industry fad-and-fashion. They are useful for commuters and those in flatter lands but when you have a loaded touring or rando bike in hills and you're fatigued, there is nothing like a well-matched triple set. Give the industry another product cycle and watch them return. It would be interesting to hear Igor's comments on matching derailleur capacity with triple setups... on my touring tandem with a triple, I am pushing the limit of what my Deore LX SGS derailleur will accommodate.
You have the "useful" completely backwards. They are less useful on the flats, they are only helpful when jumping while using narrow wide chain rings to stop chain drops
1x was driven by rear suspension design. From the engineering perspective, as a drivetrain, is as bad as it gets. Heavier and cumbersome cassettes/derailleurs, more expensive to produce, bad chainlines, finicky setup.
But it went well anyways aided by strong marketing, programmed obsolescense of 2/3X by Sram/Shimano and crutches like electronic shifting.
Modern MTB is gravity dominated so gearing is of a second concern. Hell, you can even GWIN a DH world cup race without a chain nowadays.
@@puntoycoma47 1x for rear suspension does make it easier to design anti squat, but now you only have 1 ideal gear speed for a given squat instead of 2
@@janeblogs324 you're right on that, but I guess the main driver was packaging around the bottom bracket rather than pure kinematics.
It took me all these years. I have heard of other extolling the virtues of half step. I could run the gear calculations and see that it made perfect sense, but all the bikes that I ever get have doubles with a 10 to 12 difference on the chainrings. I finally found an eBay triple crank with half-step plus granny and I am now a convert. It is a simple gear pattern and I don't have to find a gear. Nice nod to triples. It is not wasted on me that you have some nice triple cranks at VO.
I loved my triple on my tandem 55/39/28 with 11-32 tons of range top speed and 20% ramps in California 200 milers and 500 milers
You know what the funny thing is? My hybrid came with a 3x, and I told myself I’d “upgrade” if I could find something that it couldn’t do. On fast roads I get to use the big ring, and on dirt paths/hills, I bail out on my small ring. The rest of time I’m cruising comfortably in my middle ring. When I couldn’t go fast enough on the big ring, I just got a road bike instead. That 3x chainring was probably the biggest mitigator every time the N+1 feeling reared its head and tried to convince me to buy a new “upgrade”/bike.
It’s definitely something to be so lazy about “upgrading” from your 3x that you get people coming back to it and singing its praises over the 1x/2x 😂
The smaller jumps from ring to ring are nice, especially as you increase the ratio spread of the chain ring. On my old 3x7, one ring up front was equivalent to about 2 gears on the back. Compare that to my GRX setup where going from one ring to the other is 3-4 gears on the back depending on where you’re at on the cassette. I find myself always moving 1-2 gears on the cassette most times I change gears on the chain ring, the difference in ratios is just too big to plan around.
That was a great video to watch,Thanks
Saved a hole bunch of cranks , rings , from my old 70 -ty touring bikes with Stonlight 99 and SR Apex and use it on my Bob Jackson -85 . Great stuff.
l live in a hilly region and just as most other riders around here do I mostly use the middle chainring. To make the chainring last considerably longer I get the ones made of steel and not having any pins or ramps. But that setup works best with non-index shifters.
I'll give up my triple when they pry my cold dead feet from around them! Awesome choice of derailleurs BTW. Deore DX is my all time favorite...best looking by far and totally bomb-proof! In the early days of ebay I would scoop up NOS and barely used units and never paid more than 10 bucks for 'em. Still have enough leftover for like 5 builds and I just put them on my new Riv Atlantis last year. I've always said that when the nuclear apocalypse comes, the only thing left will be cockroaches, and Deore DX derailleurs! Peace!
No. My Deore literally fell apart. Suntour WAS bombproof.
All my bikes have triple chainrings. On the front, I have 46-40-26T and on the back an 11-36T 10 spd cassette. This produces a wide gear range from 118+ to 20+ gear inches. The large chainring is used with the 8 smallest cogs on mostly flat terrain, the middle chainring can be used with all the cassette cogs in rolling hill areas and the small chainring works with the 6 largest cogs for those leg-busting climbs. This combination produces about 24 usable gears that cover all cycling conditions.
Bought the Specialized AWOL in 2014 that came standard with triple gear crank, Shimano flight deck shifters and derailleurs. Use the bike as a commuter mainly, with light loads. The area around where I live has a few steep hills, so the triple comes in handy when carrying that extra load.
My favorite drivetrain of all time was a Shimano 5700 series 10-speed 3x on a rehab'd 1980 Lotus Legend (originally sold with Shimano 600 3x). It shifted beautifully w/ its brifters each and every time, even abused under load. Yes, the front derailleur brifter throw to the outer chainring might have been longer than a double, but it was so easy to throw it didn't matter, it was just a data point. There were a few gearing overlaps, but I just viewed it as having options depending on which chainring was in use and the terrain - I guess I had internalized the gear chart. ;) That bike has a happy new owner now. While I enjoy my more "modern" 2x drivetrains, I will always miss that 3x, not to mention the vintage rando machine.
I can't believe I didn't buy a stack of them when you could get Campag Record 50/40/30 for £50 in the UK. Having that "get out of jail" card with such an easy gear as backup changed everything.
Just imagine how much you could have flogged those for now…. 😢
Can’t wait for these Growtac shifters to be released.
This was my take away from the vid too... Growtac is making friction brifters??? Had to google it and was not let down.
Edit: not that I don't love triples... I have them on my commuter/grocery getter, vintage ATB and randonneuse.
Honestly these “one-by” systems have crazy chain angles and it’s super hard to adjust the derailleurs just right. I kind of regret buying 2 1x11 systems.
My 3x10 lefty was taken out by a young woman who ran a light and ran over me. All lefties now only come as a 1x, and I really don’t like it.
Been on a 40/30/22 for three years now. Holy moly, when you need low gears, you got them!!! and I have absolutely no need for more than 40*11 big gear.
I've got a triple chainset on my winter/touring bike. 50/42/32 with 13 - 26 ten speed.
Triples makes it safe. Triples is best.
Enjoyed this trip down memory lane with the old Shimano groupsets. I had mtb in the late 80's (LX and DX) through a Klein Palomino I bought in 2002 which featured XTR. The Klein still works well, and I still ride it occasionally.
I run 3 x 7 on two bikes, 3 x 8 on one bike, and 3 x 9 on one bike, all with downtube shifters. Some indexed, some friction. Equipment choice will be an issue going forward, unless someone keeps making the cassettes and front changers. I forgot 3 x 9 on a couple of mountain bikes!
better to have em and not need em than to need em and not have em
There. You now have all the info you need on this.
I'm with all the 3x fans here, its disappearance in the general marketplace baffles me, not that a front derailleur is not needed on certain bikes--some mountain or crit or gravel, et al. And if anyone has never ridden a 3x, just do what I do, convert a 26" mountain bike into a commuter with panniers and lights and such. Then ride over hill and dale to the supermarket, load up the panniers with your groceries, and O my, on the ride home you'll be dropping into the granny gear up those hills. And you'll be happy you left the campus bike at home. But seriously, a 3x can protect your knees from the damage of pushing too large a gear because, O yes indeed, it promotes gear changes like all the time and that's a big part of the fun, keeping your revs in your sweet spot, wherever that is for any given rise or climb or whatever. And thanks for this vid, Velo Orange, the cycling world needs more 3x promotional videos for those of us who ride off-campus a lot. 😀
I always run a triple crank on my mountain bikes. I firmly believe that more gear ratios are much better than fewer. I really don't understand this weird fascination with 1x drive trains. If I lived in a much more hilly or mountainous area, I would have a triple on my road bikes too. Thank you.
I’ve been mountain biking since 1996 and you can’t change gears fast enough on a 2x or 3x to be effective and efficient on trails. Plus you need room for the dropper remote on the left. And the dropper is way more important than more chainrings. No way would I, anyone I’ve known since 2016 ride anything other than 1x on actual MTB trails. Thats just silly. It’s as silly to mtbrs as to roadies on a 1x.
I found it interesting, entertaining, and educational. One of the issues I have discovered with a triple, is that they don’t work nearly as nicely when one is using a frame with a short wheelbase, ie, a racing type frame. . .
Correct.
i run a 3x10 shimano xt set and i love it so many people tell me to go with a single chainring but i just don’t understand the appeal about it other than saving a few grams of weight lmao
Solidly a triple fan. Love my Grand Cru 110 triple on my Surly Disc Trucker. An unbreakable beast!
I agree. My cyclocross super commuter is a triple and I personally prefer it over a double.
Triples are awesome. I have single, double, and triple chainring bikes. My triples are my do everything rigs. I find myself riding those the most.
I have the VO Triple on my Soma Grand Randonneur. Beautiful crankset.
Yup, been using a triple on my road bike for over 10 years, and I'm very happy with it.
It looks ease when you are doing it. Cheers,
There was never anything wrong with triple cranksets for experienced riders, but the average consumer is REALLY BAD at using their gears appropriately. Most people stayed in the middle ring all the time, and the didn't even know how to change between the big rings. I'm glad to see triple cranksets make a resurgence, but they won't be back on bikes from the major manufacturers.
Deore DX my favorite group set. I was so happy when i found a still in the box set for my Batavus dasher 80s mtb
A modern 2x system essentially eliminates the center chainring from a 3x system and makes the gap up with a wider range cassette.
God bless you for spreading the Gospel Of Triple
🙏
@@velo_orange 😂
In my mind, triples go with freewheels. With an 8sp cassette and up, doubles begin to shine. I have a 40/26 on my heavy touring bike and it rocks. Call me crazy but I coast downhill and 40/11 is plenty for my needs. 9sp, downtube shifters, 11-34 in back. Triples exist post-half-step not for the granny gear but the top end. You can replace the big ring with a bash guard.
I prefer a triple to do something like 52/39/26 with a 14-28 9 speed cassette rather than the big jumps between gears on a wide range double. The middle chainring on that setup has gear inches from 42-70, which is pretty perfect for cruising. A high of 100 gear inches and a low of 25, plenty for anything, and simple to shift.
@@Primifluous Now that’s a proper triple! That spread makes sense.
@@Primifluous That's a neat approach. I hadn't thought of a road cassette with a large small cog.
I have 3X8 Claris set on my winter bike/wheel-on training bike. I have a 3X9 Deore LX rear / Sora FRD3030X front (for tire clearance) set on my hybrid-to-drop bar conversion. I still have the 3X9 Deore flat bar shifters, in perfect order, in case I ever want to go back. I won't. Triples certainly have their place, especially on a day when I'm not feeling energetic. Square taper for the win!
The industry is replacing anything that is reliable and affordable, but i don't worry, I've got a huge stash of bikes and parts from the good old days.
I never stopped riding triple (3x9) on my mountain bike. Love the range. I play around with slightly different ratios on the cassette and currently have an 11-28 and it’s perfect for cadence👍🏻
I have triples on a few of my bikes. So versatile. The narrower gear skips also make for more efficient cycling.
When I was 12, a five speed was all I needed. Flatland and youth.
I started out riding over 50 years ago with a triple and still ride with a Campy Racing T and 10 speed set up. Here in New England old guys need old tech.
Half step produces a tighter range of small increments in gear inches between 65&100" than any other combo. That's where you really need a tight spread. Throw in a granny ring and you've got perfection for all road situations loaded or not.
OMG! "The half step is your favorite," Igor, you mad man! I don't have the legs or knees for a half step. 45 tooth is way to big on the flats, I hated them in every bike I've ever bought with one.
I've been on the rando compact double for a long time and have the same problem 44/28 is just to silly for me. Ones to big and the other is to little for just about everything. And I'm only in the top half of my cassette 99% of the time. Triples really are the truth.
But I want a more compact triple. The 48 tooth big ring is still to big. I've almost never spun out, especially on a modern cassette with a 11 tooth little cog! That was really only a problem back in the 5/6 speed freewheel days when a 14 tooth was the smallest cog. If I'm going fast enough to spin out , I'm bombing down a mountain with watery eyes, blurry vision, and both hands squeezing the brake levers, praying something isn't going to pop out of the bushes in my way!
I think a 44/34/24 would be amazing with a long cage rear derailleur and a modern 8/10 speed reasonably sized cassette 11-32 or so.
I can't sustain much faster than about 18 mph on the flats and I like the granny gear for steep climbs.. I think a 1x with a wider range on the cassette works pretty well. MT bikes today works for me.
Love 🧡 repurposing older bits and parts with a modern bling bling 3x crankset. Enjoy your day my friends.
My 1994 Diamondback has Shimano LX 3x7 with front derailleur indexing! It’s wild how well it works, nearly flawless.
I recently bought a new mountain bike with Deore 1x12 and surprised by how much I’ve grown to like it. It too is flawless, not sure how long it will last though. Time will tell.
Great job for promoting 3x, single chainring is just fashionable these days that is it. I am still riding my 1990 Giant Super sierra XT triple ring mtb and love it. I just bought a Kona Dr Dew with single chainring and I hate it. I will run it for a year or so and then convert to triple.
Andy Wilkinson is arguably Britain's greatest ever cyclist, and almost certainly Britain's greatest ever amateur cyclist. He has held every long distance record imaginable, breaking the killer 24 hour record at near 50 years of age. He rides with a triple chain-ring. If it's good enough for him.........
As someone who runs single speeds (and has used 1x and 2x) I always reverted back to the trusty 3x (specifically 3x6) because I love the wide range and the truck/tractor like behavior from that heavy little 18 speed mountain bike since I use it a lot like such. I tow and commute and off road (for fun and home use) and the 3x is such an amazing drivetrain for all around and rugged use while I have my trusty single speed track bike for my sporty road racing and indoor training😎
For me the best triple is a half step with a granny gear. With a 52/47/28 and a only a 5 cog 14, 17, 21, 26, 32 freewheel I get a range of 23 to 100 gear inch with less than with 11% or smaller jumps down to 38 gear inch and then 3 more bail out gears. The shift pattern is simple and logical. There are no redundant ratios. Shifting from 47 to 28 and back for the bail out gears is no problem whatsoever when using a “dog fang” chain catcher. With 7 or 8 speed cogs the range can get even wider with smaller jumps
HS+G is definitely the best triple set-up for touring/road-oriented applications. I feel like it could be good on trails too with different chainsets, but i haven't tried yet... I bet 44/39/22 would be rad with an 11-32 out back on a 26". But I've got some 80s-era Japanese touring bikes with the HS+G set up, and they're so nice for long leisurely road rides. The redundancies of the more common 50/39/30 and 48/36/26 triples kind of annoy me, even if mush of that is about my own OCD....
And how about a free hub designed for a 5 or 6 cog cassette for a no-dish 130 or 135 mm OLD rear wheel? V-O could be the HSG source. For marketing-nothing is more fun than dancing the half step with granny.
@@brentmassmann1463 that's a good idea but if VO doesn't deliver, Hope Tech sells that hub you want...
I had half step plus granny on my first loaded touring bike. Trek 520 from 1991. 50-45-24. Trek didn't get the half step very correct. But it worked. Matched with a 7 speed cassette. Bar end shifters. I was very happy with it on several loaded tours. But I eventually upgraded to STI and 10 speed cassette. And different chainrings too. Shifting is much easier to do linear with STI. And with 10 speed cassette, you have enough cogs to get the same small, constant percentage change in gears. So unless you have a fetish for staying with 5 or 6 or 7 speed freewheels or cassettes, there is no reason for half step plus granny today. Unless you are scavenging old parts out of boxes to build a bike. But not if you are buying new parts.
@@russellseaton2014yes of course a 1x10 STI works as a wide range touring set up and is simple to operate. I’m all for anything that makes cycling more enjoyable for others. I personally prefer the little bit of additional interaction with my bike that the HS&G requires. I also resist following the crowd to the latest thing. My bikes are unique expressions of me. I like re-using existing bikes (and other material goods) instead of producing more for some small incremental advantage or to be with the in-crowd or as a status symbol The slight downsides of 1x10 STI are cost, mechanical robustness, and that cogs smaller than 13 teeth cause lower drive train efficiencies. When there are old “obsolete” 1x10 systems wasting away unused maybe I will build one up.
Hey back in the early 1980’s before I’d heard of mountain bikes, I had a triple TA chainring setup on my Dawes Galaxy road touring bike, with Specialized heavy duty tyres for off tarmac adventures
Totally agree. Triples are great. I have 1x12 on my emtb and that's fine because of the power from the motor, although actually it's undergeared. I have 3x9 on my acoustic mtb and 2x11 on my roadbike.
I still have that drivetrain on my ‘91 Stumpjumper.
I'm still using 9 speed triple I am using 48-36-28 and 12-34 cassette works lovely on my Cannondale hybrid
Question. You recommend a 124 mm bb spindle. For a bike with 130mm rear spacing would I use a narrower spindle with this crankset?
No, still run 124mm. You want to make sure the chainline is correct
3×7 friction bar ends
Work for me
🤠👍
I have a z Lemond triple. I’d say the main thing it has that a compact double doesn’t is more mid-range gears. It has it uses. I think really the biggest detriment to it is that it’s a bigger hassle to take apart and clean. Tuning the FD can really be challenging also. (Using a 2012 11s Athena shifter and FD w 9 s 6500 Ultegra crank and RD which works great.)
2x11 covers all but the most extreme bases but in all these scenarios the two most important points are range and how nicely it’s set up.
I've ridden thousands of miles on my VO Triple since 2014. It's super easy to find the perfect gear for every situation (including heavy loads), and chains seem to last forever. In 10 years, I've never had to adjust the front derailleur, though I have had to adjust the rear one a couple of times.
Rear derailleur have improved now. So it so much easier to set up . Had a TA triple back in the 70’s . A real dog to use.
I used to road race with a triple in hilly country. Definitely a finisher, often a contender. Psychologically strong on the hills.
Just cobbled together a mix of NOS ultegra and 105 for a 3x10 group on my old Audax. Nice 3x10 brifters are definitely getting a bit thin on the ground.
The new "grandpa's gearset" is a 1by with a small chainring (34t below) and 11-50t cassette.
My buddy once told me that when I went to the small chainring, it was like I was standing still.
As an elderly Dane of now 76, i of course have a triple Shimano XTR set in front, and an elderly 11 speed XTR set of wheels (Originally absolutely, absurdly expensive, but bought on E-bay as used, a little less unreasonable in price! They are the old "racing bike" size, 700C and not the more modern used, and - heavy 29" wheels!
Close to my former home I had two hills on which I needed my lowest gears to go up, with my feet in the XTR click pedals and being unable to get my feet free if I had to stop (I'm still an old man of age!)! I can't even start on a flat road in my low gears and obtain riding speed, but going up absurd hills, with a felt risk of falling backwards with my bike, they are really fine!
I also use oversize XTR9120 double caliber disc brakes, to still be able to stop my bike again. They functions very fine and not, as expected when I built my bike, too much! I use my Triple gear to select which gearing I need for the area. Finn. Denmark
You've probably started something now with the 1X snobs! Fact is 3X's are awesome! Great range, allowing for small steps between cogs, and all for very little weight (if weight really bothers you).
I just built a semi custom flat bar touring bike last year. 3X10, with 24-32-44 up front, an 11-36 on the back, with Deore indexed thumb shifters. 600% range and some really low end gears for times when you need it. I have 14 actual unique gears with at least an 11% step between and without overlap - almost perfect. One tiny wish might be to replace the indexed front shifter with friction, as long as it can be mounted on the bar. I'm looking for ideas there. Not a fan of bar end shifters. But I do like friction shifting for the chainrings where I can always get the derailleur in perfect placement.
Had a Campag Athena triple for nearly 10 years, loved it , it simply wore out
I agree I like my tipple. I noticed the one installed is a square taper, What do you do to keep that on! maybe I'm just to heavy and powerful (I am not a light guy and my bike isn't either) but Mine always end up loose. Brand new one Cleaned the spindle put it on, blue locktite on the threads and within a week and a half my left crank gets floppy!!!!
Never met a low gear I didn't like when I'm struggling to get up a steep hill.
Still have my 7 x 3 road bike from 1996. The 46-36-26 front chain rings are divine, for me (a hopelessly unfit amateur) and my hilly terrain.
triples is best gif 😉 great vid!
1x are the best idea ever... specially for people that do not need ultimate performance. "Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability" - Dijkstra
Thanx for that trick on seating the removable link. I’ve struggled with those buggers before!?
I have two mtb's with triple crankset (3x7 and 3x8). One is a Jamis Trail x1 crankset Shimmano Altus 40-30-22, cassette Shimano Tourney 12-32. The other is a 90's Schwinn Paramount PDG 30 crankset Shimano Eagle 500LX 48-38-24 😊
2x7 here too. I like the idea of wide narow toothing on 1x chainwheels. They should make a gaered version of that with some ramps every 5th tooth or something. I bet theyd last longer.
I think that's what makes it special. Is that it looks great and just works.
I rode the Baja Divide with a triple and Alfine 8, Surly chain tensioner. I was on a strict budget and found this set up most economical and low maintenance.
Using 3X10 for now, but I really want a quad or dual drive IGH for 3x3x10 .
Would be nice for heavy duty touring in steep mountain area and still has close ratio gearing for road.
If you're going to set your quicklink like that, it needs to be on the top half. Any tension on the bottom is from the rear derailleur only.
I started mountain biking and wrenching in the 80’s with thumb shifters and 3x7. I miss the versatility of a triple on the mountain bike, big ring to ride to the trailhead, middle for up and down singletrack and the granny for steep climbs 😢 But…….. I dont miss chain suck in muddy conditions, chain drop at inopportune moments on technical terrain. I may have to put a triple on my hardtail to see if the tradeoffs are worth it. Good for touring though.
I had a triple and close ratio freehub small steps I could always keep my cadence where I wanted