Carbon seatstays or post?

[Skierchickie]

Double vs triple does seem like it will vary by person and by terrain. Personally, I live in a hilly, but by no means mountainous area, and I have always had a double. I don't feel that I need a triple, and wouldn't want to be tempted to use a granny gear if it wasn't necessary - I like to think that it will make be stronger. The temptation to drop into the granny might be too much for me.

That is on my road bike. My touring bike has a triple, and I can spin seated up a hill on my way to work on that bike, that I have to stand on my road bike on. Needless to say, my mountain bike is a triple. I'm not anti-triple, but I think that riding a double can help a person to get stronger and tougher (not overnight), as long as the terrain isn't too extreme for it.

I just finished reading Miles From Nowhere, by Barbara Savage. She and her husband toured around the world. The did the US first (8000 miles, or something). It wasn't until the end of the US leg that they upgraded their 10 speeds to 15 speeds! The Rockies, etc - on 10 speeds, with 50-60 lbs of gear!

[Cataboo]

I've been biking recently on a frame without carbon seat stays, it did have a carbon front fork and a carbon seatpost. I've been having a lot of wrist pain and hand numbness, despite gel under the handlebar tape, raising the handlebars, and keeping the weight off my wrists... And I've been having it early in the ride.

Yesterday, I fixed up my bike with carbon seatstays, carbon seatpost, and carbon front fork... And magically there was no wrist pain till probably about 20 miles into the ride and it wasn't that bad.

When we got back home, I sort of took both bikes, and dropped the front end on to the concrete floor of the garage... The frame without the seatstays kept vibrating for quite sometime and transmitted to the handlebar of the bike. The frame with the carbon seatstays, dampened the impact fairly quickly and I couldn't feel it much in the front of the handlebar.


If you have any wrist issues (I do have bad wrists to begin with), I'd get a bike with the carbon seat stays. I probably wouldn't buy the bikes with tiagra shifters though. At least 105 for the shifters, if the front derailleur's tiagra, that's not a huge deal - it's like a $40 upgrade to 105 if that, and you're not going to notice a lower end front derailleur.


As for double vs. triple... I live in a hilly/mountainous area. I tend to stay riding on the hills and don't need my granny ring - but I like the option of having the granny ring in case I eventually go nuts and decide to start riding up the mountains. I'm just working my way up to it.

[VeloVT]

I probably wouldn't buy the bikes with tiagra shifters though. At least 105 for the shifters, if the front derailleur's tiagra, that's not a huge deal - it's like a $40 upgrade to 105 if that, and you're not going to notice a lower end front derailleur.

I'm not quite sure I agree with this. I think the difference between a higher-end versus a lower-end front derailleur is much more noticeable than the difference between different grades of rear derailleur. I know my Ultegra FD shifts much more crisply and easily than my 105 FD, though there is not much difference in the rear shifting (one bike has full Ultegra and the other has full 105).

I wouldn't skimp on the FD.