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.