Road Bike Triple Vs Double

Double or triple chainring.

Road bike triple vs double.

For example if you take a brand of bike and look at their entry road bike it will typically have a triple or compact. Shimano offers triple chainsets for its three cheaper road bike groupsets claris sora and tiagra. In each case the chainrings are 50 39 and 30 tooth. Specialized diverge comp the 2017 version gets a sub compact chainset triple chainset.

With typical 5 mm chainring spacing this puts the inner at 41 mm the outer at 46 mm. In my experience read my opinion a triple does offer a couple of. Traditionally entry level road bikes come with a compact or a triple and high end bikes come with a standard or a compact and this is done for good reason as you develop as a rider then you can build up to a standard crank. With the invention of the compact double some thought that the triple chainring had gone the way of the passenger pigeon but it didn t happen that way.

The introduction of the compact chainset in the mid 2000s was a defining point in the path of road riding. A triple chainset is one with three chainrings. Before the compact came along your crankset choice was largely split between a double for racing and a triple for touring and audax riding. And the next time you go buy a bike more manufacturers are putting compacts on their road bikes.

Consider swapping out your standard double chainring crankset for a compact model. The high end bike will often have a traditional double or compact. Road double 43 5 mm. Older bikes with 110 spacing would be on the smaller end of this range newer bikes with 120 mm spacing normally use 42 mm.

If you are a weaker rider and or you plan to tour with weight and do hill climbs then consider triple cranks. Road triple 45 mm. A traditional double for a road bike may be more than most people want for casual riding. The smaller 50 and 34 tooth chainrings helped open up road cycling to a much wider.

There are always sides to a discussion involving tradition and emotion. Shimano spec measured to the middle ring. So many arguments about the use of a single front chainring versus a double or triple. Progressive all road performance new 10 speed tiagra provides serious entry level riding performance with cascaded technology from top tier lines.

In this case tradition has generally stood with a single front chainring for single speed bikes think kids bikes city type bikes and the grandma bikes with multi speed hubs. At this time of limited choice a triple was appealing for any non racing applications particularly touring or audax bikes laden with luggage the lower gears helping to spin up the climbs.