Compact Double vs. Triple

[anakiwa]

I concur with Veronica's suggestion to look at gear ratio charts. I'm in the process of purchasing a bike and have spent a ton of time staring at them.

Basically if you take a triple and replace it with a compact double you'll lose the high and low gears (assuming you keep the same cassette). If it's only one end of the range (high or low) that you need, it's pretty easy to get a cassette with higher or lower gears and that will take care of things. If you need both the high and low gears you'll need a cassette with a really wide range, or you'll lose one end of the range.

For my tri-bike I went with a compact double and it works really well (though in retrospect I should have gotten a cassette with an 11 to make up for the fact that I went from a 52 to a 50). I mainly use it for racing, and when I'm really pushing, I don't need the really low gears (plus most triathlons don't have as many hills as I'm used to- I live in a pretty hilly place). After a fair amount of soul-searching I decided to put a triple on the new road bike I'm buying- I just didn't want to lose the wide range I can easily get with a triple.

Good luck!

[SadieKate]

Me three on the gear ratio chart. You need to determine the gear ratios you ride in now for comparison.

[Aggie_Ama]

Thanks for all your help ladies. I am still studying up on gear ratios to understand better. I went with a triple on my new bike we bought today. There were several steep hills to test ride on and the triple felt comfortable. I am just not quite ready to give up my granny gear. I don't use it that often, but I like knowing it is there. Honestly, I think I could do just fine with the double, but here the hills are steep. Short and steep, long and steep- it doesn't matter as long as steep is in there!