Triples and low gears

[Popoki_Nui]

Apparently, many of the pros at the Giro today used triple cranksets.
I just find the cultural taboo against doubles interesting, when people who like triples don't typically have a taboo against doubles. Fire away at me if you want want, but if the big boys can use triples so can we. Pick your gearing for you and your terrain, not due to cultural peer pressure.

Absolutely. I just changed one of my road bike to a mtb triple for exactly the same reason. I keep standard doubles on two other road bikes purely for period-correctness, and that's just my own thing.
Do what you gotta do to make your bikes rideable and enjoyable. Peer pressure be darned.

[HappyAnika]

Rollers and canyons and mountains, Oh My! Love my triple, so do my knees. Maybe if I lived somewhere flat in the midwest I'd switch to a double. I really don't care if someone sniggers at me because I have a triple. It enables me to enjoy the scenery and do rides I wouldn't be able to do if I had a double.

[Veronica]

I love my compact double 46 - 33 in the front, 11-34 in the rear. I can climb trees with it, or so I've been told.

V.

[SalsaMTB]

Living in the flats on metro detroit, MI, I have absolutely no reason to get a triple. The majority of my time is spent in my big chainring with the occasional shift to the smaller of the two when there is an actual hill. Our hills are incredibly small here. If I were to travel out west, south, east or north, I would definitely get a triple!

[LadyinWhite]

I have a triple which I use when I travel. My bike comes with me to Maine and Vermont and they have some serious hills up there. I still feel it in my knee when I start mashing - even a little bit, the tendonitis lingers and reminds me it's still not completely healed.

That pain is my red flag and I'll go into whatever gear I need, whatever ring, at whatever speed it takes to keep the inflamation under control.

My body deserves at least that much care.

[Eden]

Coming from another perspective I raced with a triple for nearly a whole year and it was a disadvantage. No one made fun of me - indeed no one really mentioned it and a lot of people I know use compact crank sets - no one makes fun of them either. I did find that shifting from the small ring to the middle one was too slow, as it only takes a moments hesistation to lose contact with the leaders on a hill and then you are done. If I were not racing it wouldn't have been anything I really noticed, but because I was I ended up not shifting into the small ring and using the 42 for doing most of my climbing which was also not ideal. I haven't ever used a compact double so I can't comment to if its any better or not.
One thing to remember about large stage races, is that a lot of those guys are not climbers and really, really just want to finish the stage, not win it. If using a triple is going to get the big sprinters over the mountain I can certainly understand why they would use it. It would not surprise me if anyone who thinks they are going to contest the stage wouldn't - though I have heard of some big names putting one on for certain stages of the Vuelta and Tour de Georgia.
Of course if you are not racing there is no reason in the world to not use the most comfortable gearing - my husbands touring bike has a mt bike style triple, his TT bike has some freaky big ring like a 56 or something - its all about the function of the bike. I used the small ring of the triple on my Marin all of the time even though I race with a standard double.

[maillotpois]

....get the big sprinters over the mountain ....

I always love this ("Big Georgie Hincapie", etc.). I know relatively speaking, they may be larger than the pure climbers, etc., but none of these guys are exactly "big". Well, okay, Magnus Backstedt. But that's it. :P

[Eden]

I always love this ("Big Georgie Hincapie", etc.). I know relatively speaking, they may be larger than the pure climbers, etc., but none of these guys are exactly "big". Well, okay, Magnus Backstedt. But that's it. :P

OK OK, I'll have to agree - some of the "big sprinters" are not exactly big at all - ala Robbie McEwan, or Allen Davis - who are actually kind of short guys, though I'd hesistate to call Robbie small.... can't really compare them to some of the tiny/skinny guys who are pure climbers though. Having godzilla quads makes you sprint really fast, but its not too much of an advantage when the terrain turns up though