supported tour- must-haves?

[Becky]

What are the specifics on both your compact and your triple? I have both, set-ups too, but my triple has only one gear that's smaller than what my compact offers. So, it really doesn't end up making all that big of a difference. Do you have two different bikes or would you just swamp out your compact for the triple? If it's the former, bring the bike that's more comfortable (if one is).

Very good point. I need to go play with a gear calculator. My current set up is a 34-50 and 12-25 in the back. The triple would likely be a 30-39-52. How are your bikes set up?

ETA: It would be a difference of a low gear of 31.7 gear inches (triple) vs. 35.9 gear inches (compact). Not sure that it's worth the $200. I can stop eating crap and work on hill climbing for the next month instead

I have 2 bikes, but intend to use the steel one for this trip. When I rebuilt it a couple years ago, I intentionally spec'ed it with triple shifters, a triple FD, and a compact crankset that uses an external BB. The compact is fine for my local terrain, but I wanted the option to go triple just by swapping the crankset and adjusting the FD.