Quote Originally Posted by buffybike View Post
I have a triple on my road bike and have never used a compact double. The guys at my LBS tried to talk me into a compact double with a mountain bike cassette in the rear when I upgraded to Shimano 105, but since I'm moving to CO soon, I figured I would need a triple on those hills. Plus, my knees are shot and I've got to baby them.

Now that my riding has much improved from a year ago, I'm kinda wishing I'd gone with a double for 3 reasons: (1) it's lighter, (2) I'm topping out in the big chain ring on the flats and descents, (3) I've only used the smallest chainring a couple of times. In a perfect world, I'd keep my current setup for longer, hilly rides and have a compact for shorter and/or less hilly ones. If the right deal came along....
Out of curiosity, what set up do you have with your triple? Depending on the cassette you're now using, you would likely have had smaller gears if you'd gone with a compact and mountain cassette.

I can't stress this enough in discussing compacts versus triple: a compact with the right cassette can replicate or even exceed the granny gears that you have with your typical triple set up.