Quote Originally Posted by indysteel View Post
Great post, Oakleaf.

I think it might help to clarify, too, that there are "standard" doubles, e.g., a 53-39, and "compact" doubles. While I might the OP is talking about a compact double, it's not clear from her post.
Exactly! I personally have always ridden a "standard" double and love them. I recently spent some time riding a "compact" double and disliked it intensely, as it did not suit my style of riding.

I tend to be a bit of a lazy thing on my roadie (completely different on the MTB) and drop the front ring if I just want to power up and over something short and hard. With the compact double the gap is too big and I have to fiddle around with the back to be comfortable. And then fiddle around again when I go back up to the big ring.

So when I bought my most recent bike, which is for touring with bigger hills than I like on the roadie, I was quite clear that I wanted a triple so that I had as close as possible to my "standard" double with an extra ring. Going out for its first ride in about twenty minutes! Yay!