Quote Originally Posted by Grits View Post
Having said that, if you need a triple for climbing, it is totally worth any extra weight.
I think this misstates the issue. A triple is not, in and of itself, better for climbing. It depends on what cassette it is paired with. You can pair a compact double to a widely spaced cassette that essentially provides the same easy gears that a triple theoretically does. With that fix, what is lost are the gears in the middle of the gear range. Between the more widely spaced chainrings of a compact and more widely spaced cogs of a cassette geared for hard climbing, you end up with bigger gaps between gears, which makes finding just the right gear for flat or windy conditions a bit more challenging. To me, that is the real downside of a compact double. The climbing concerns are easily overcome.

I also like triples on real rolling terrain. At least for me, I end up having to shift "up front" a lot more on rollers with a compact than I would with the average triple set up. With a triple, I can often just shift between my rear cogs on rollers. Either way you're shifting, but for some reason, I prefer my shifts be within the rear cassette and not up front between chainrings. Maybe because I'm lazy.