Compact Double or Triple?

[Eden]

Another case of the bike industry racer boys forcing us to choose from products we don't want. (white tires, white bar tape, compact doubles etc.)

Wow that's pretty harsh....some of my teammates who have black and white bikes were looking forward to getting their white tires and were gravely disappointed when the company was unable to send them..... and no they are not boys....

Like Indy says most racers use standard doubles and to be really honest its not been all that long since that was all you could get....and "10 speeds" really had 10 speeds..... I think it was probably the 80's when triples appeared. At that time I believe 7 speed cassettes were the technology of the day - my first adult bike was a Trek with a triple and 7 on the rear, I believe that was around 85 or 86. Compact cranks were accepted and made by all the major manufacturers by around 2006.

Jump ahead now - we have 10 on the back - with 11 coming out. The range of a triple - and all the redundant gear ratios they have seems less and less necessary. I can also imagine that it is getting trickier to make a triple that works well with chains and rings getting more narrow and shifting needing to be more precise. I'm sure that they will always be out there and available, but I do think that there are reasons why they may be becoming less and less popular that don't have anything to do with racers - who don't often use compacts, much less triples....