chainring: triple vs. compact double

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Originally Posted by maillotpois

Absolutely!! Would you like to also borrow Hell on Wheels??

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But of course :D

Gosh, yellow, you need to warn your fine employers that they might have to step up production a bit for that weekend !

but how on earth will I schlep all that chocolate home?

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Originally Posted by jobob

but how on earth will I schlep all that chocolate home?

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I'm trying to figure it out also. The Bike Bus can carry more but it will be exposed to temperature fluctuations. Since yellow apparently does approve of ice being used at all, even to get the precious cargo across the summer desert, I'm not sure what we're going to do.

Three of the strongest riders I know - SadieKate, maillotpois, and Veronica - use triples.

I'm about one-tenth as strong as they are (maybe one-fifth on a good day!) so darn tootin' I have a triple. I also have 46 year old knees which, by and large, have given me very little trouble, and I fully intend to keep it that way. And I hope to still be toodling up Mt. Diablo when I'm 80.

And hopefully sometime between now and then I'll finally make it up freakin' Sierra Road :p

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Originally Posted by cindysue

I guess what I am trying to say is - if you are a strong rider, you might want to consider going to the compact. If you want to scream downhill, you might want to consider a higher large ring (53-39)

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Psst, Cindy!:D MP can kick all of our collective posteriors with her lovely triple. You can get a 53 on the outside and a 30 on the granny with Campy 10 speed. Best of both worlds. Also, even if you only have a 48 or 50 on the outside, you can frequently get a big gear because you run a small cog like an 11T on your cassette. My Kelly has a big gear of 48x11 which is bigger than the 50x13 on the Litespeed. It's the combo of chainrings and cassettes together (as in gear inches and ratios) you have to consider.

I absolutely appreciate all the good advice here! For my situation, the triple is a resounding winner. I really loved riding the first time around, and I remember being able to see marked improvements within a few months - that's one of the features that's drawing me back. It's an enjoyable fitness program... and I'm so bored with the gym! But my knees just turned 50, so I'd like to be kind to them.

I'm interested in kelownagirl's experience riding again after 20 years, and what it was like to get through the buying experience.

Thanks again.
Amy

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Originally Posted by kelownagirl

I suspect it's just another thing he finds "uncool" :rolleyes: about my riding, similar to the "no carriers" rule (or whatever they're called now), and the "no fenders" rule (which seemed really dumb to me today when it rained for the last hour of our ride and I absolutely soaked from the muddy water rooster tail hitting me from in front and behind...)

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Heeheehee, your husband's uncool-itude meter would hit the red zone if he ever rode with me & my husband.

Triple cranks (with "touring" gears, no less), saddlebags, and :eek: fenders.

And we even wear wool jerseys - oh the humanity ! :D

OK, I ditch my wool jerseys when it gets warm

You know, I only recall seeing one double crank on the Davis Double Saturday and that was HotRod's bike (he's got Veronica's second favorite ogle-worthy calves). The guy is a machine; most of us are not. I'll stick with my triple.

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Originally Posted by dachshund

I'm interested in kelownagirl's experience riding again after 20 years, and what it was like to get through the buying experience.

Thanks again.
Amy

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Not much of an educational story on the buying experience there I'm afraid. I had ridden my 8 year old, very heavy, mountain bike a few times last summer and again this spring. (Didn't know the difference between a mountain bike and a road bike until I met DH 2 years ago). When I decided to actually start "training" myself to ride more seriously this spring, I bought the new bike. Woke up one morning, said let's go buy me a bike, went to three different stores, found one at the last store and bought it. Was just hoping to get a used bike that was better quality than my old one (which wouldn't be too hard) :rolleyes: but ended up spending about twice what I had planned (the bike was only 1 year old). I rode it around the parking lot a few times and said, yup it seems good to me :p I really had no clue. I let dh and the store guy make the "mechanical" decisions. I liked that it had disc brakes only because dh was excited about that. I changed the seat to one off another bike I had tried and also bought slicks because I was mostly going to ride on the road. I guess I'm lucky because I really like this bike and it fits me and it goes much faster than my old one and the chain never falls off :rolleyes:

HOWEVER, in the past two months, I have tons of reading about cycling, reading all hubby's Cycling magazines, Team Estrogen archives etc etc and now I'm just beginning to understand a little about what really should go into buying a bike. I am gonna buy me a good road bike sometime in the next year and I'm gonna to know what to look for and do the "mechanical" talking myself next time. :D

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Originally Posted by SnappyPix

Is it just me, or does anyone else think the Milram riders look like they're wearing baby-grows?! (Not sure what you call them in the US?!)

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Nooo, it's not just you !! :o

I didn't think a team kit could exist that would make Allessandro Petacchi look less than god-like stunning. Wrong...!

We call them "diapers", by the way.

me in this thread:
on topic: 2 (sort of)
off topic: 3

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Originally Posted by SadieKate

You know, I only recall seeing one double crank on the Davis Double Saturday and that was HotRod's bike (he's got Veronica's second favorite ogle-worthy calves). The guy is a machine; most of us are not. I'll stick with my triple.

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Now, was that the guy who rode up behind me while we were on the Davis Double route and called out "Amici Veloci my @ss!" ? Sorry I missed his calves.

I saw a single-speed on the DD, btw. Now that's studly. (And that's precisely what I said when he rode by. :D )

me in this thread:
on topic: 2 (maybe 1.5)
off topic: 4

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Originally Posted by SadieKate

I'm not sure what we're going to do.

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I have but three words:

Maximum Baggage Allowance.

Oh heck with it, I've given up keeping track. Sorry for hijacking your thread Amy !

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Originally Posted by jobob

Now, was that the guy who rode up behind me while we were on the Davis Double route and called out "Amici Veloci my @ss!" ? Sorry I missed his calves.

I saw a single-speed on the DD, btw. Now that's studly. (And that's precisely what I said when he rode by. :D )

me in this thread:
on topic: 2 (maybe 1.5)
off topic: 4

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Did the single speed guy have a very long thin braid down his back?? We rode for a bit with a fixed gear guy w/a long braid. He was hard to ride with because we could so drop him on the downhills/rollers. So we had to leave him. But it was impressive nonetheless.

The singlespeed guy I saw (as he whizzed by me :p ) was riding a Rivendell Quickbeam and he was wearing #22 - that's my 'lucky' number which is why it stuck with me.

Even though I suppose a single speed on the Davis Double is not all that astonishing, relatively speaking. Easy for me to say of course.

Has anyone done the Devil Mountain Double on a singlespeed ? That would be mind-boggling.

Wild. Well, my guy was fixed gear, non-Rivendell, so they were different crazy people.

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Originally Posted by jobob

Now, was that the guy who rode up behind me while we were on the Davis Double route and called out "Amici Veloci my @ss!" ? Sorry I missed his calves.

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yep. According to Ed, he towed their gang on a ride from Placerville to Pleasanton. No rotation in the paceline pretty much the entire way.