Double,Triple or compact

brendan0576

I'm in the process of buying a new bike. I've had a Saracen racer for the last few years. I've been looking at all the websites but can't make up my mind on which chain ring to go for. Double,Triple or compact.
Advice please

IM0

unless you race and or do lots of flat group rides go with the compact
and get a 25-11 or 23-11 cassette

brendan0576

cheers
Its a mixed bag as far as routes are concerned hilly and flat
Now all i need to do is decide which bike to buy

shapez

Go with the compact with a 12-25. This will give you the gears for the mountains that can also be gotten from a 53/39 chain ring and the triple.

Lumen

Compact gives you a greater choice of chainrings (110BCD), if you feel doing something different.

I'm currently riding around with 46-36 chainrings on a compact crankset (came with the bike), and it's the best combo I've tried. Loads of overlap, but rarely feel like I'm dithering around one end or the other of the cassette. Haven't tried big hills yet, but I've got 11-25 on the rear so might not be too bad.

ROK ON

@Lumen - 46-36.
The Cross bike or the road bike??

Would you not lose a lot of top end speed on the flat or descent>

Sorry for derailing the thread.

Lumen

ROK ON wrote: »

@Lumen - 46-36.
The Cross bike or the road bike??

Would you not lose a lot of top end speed on the flat or descent

Cross bike. 11-46 gives me 52.6kph @ 100rpm, 63.1kph @ 120rpm.

How fast do you cycle?

ROK ON

Lumen wrote: »

Cross bike. 11-46 gives me 52.6kph @ 100rpm, 63.1kph @ 120rpm.

How fast do you cycle?

54.5km @ 100rpm (12-52).
65.4km @ 120rpm (12-52)

The 11 cassette is really powerful versus the 12. If I was to switch from 12-25 to 11-25, my top speed would go to 71.4km at 120rpm.

Ryaner

shapez wrote: »

Go with the compact with a 12-25. This will give you the gears for the mountains that can also be gotten from a 53/39 chain ring and the triple.

Compact is usually 50/34 and triple usually around 50/36/30. At 39x25 is a whole hell of a lot harder than a 30x25.
Hell I've a 34x28 on mine currently and if I could get a lower range for next summer I'd consider it.

CheGuedara

ROK ON wrote: »

The 11 cassette is really powerful versus the 12. If I was to switch from 12-25 to 11-25, my top speed would go to 71.4km at 120rpm.

Hell yeah! was cranking 53-11 yesterday on the flat and was holding speed in the mid thirties (mph) (was defintiely NOT cranking 120 rpms - maybe 85 to 90 perhaps).

Tired today after it though.

What do you guys use to calc those figures BTW?

Lumen

CheGuedara wrote: »

Hell yeah! was cranking 53-11 yesterday on the flat and was holding speed in the mid thirties (mph) (was defintiely NOT cranking 120 rpms - maybe 85 to 90 perhaps).

What do you guys use to calc those figures BTW?

According to Sheldon, 53x11 at 80rpm gives 30.1mph.

CheGuedara

Lumen wrote: »

According to Sheldon, 53x11 at 80rpm gives 30.1mph.

Guess I was closer to the 90 rpm then - no cadence on the Cateye computer so can only guestimate.

Great fun but a lot more work than pushing the 12T

rottenhat

Ryaner wrote: »

Compact is usually 50/34 and triple usually around 50/36/30.

Um...no. The middle ring on a road triple would never be as small as 36. 39-42 would be typical.

cdaly_

I like a very wide range. Currently running 52/44/30 with a 32-11 cassette.

I rarely use the 30 ring and tend to run with 52x13 on the flat but there are those occasional hills...

I'll only ever get onto the 52x11 downhill or with a serious tailwind on the flat but it's the best fun when it happens. Just hoping that headwind I had this morning holds for the ride home...

Poncherello

Ive been doing a little research on this recently and remain confused perhaps you could help clarify a couple of things.
I have a 2008 Trek 1.5 currently has a Sora/Tiagra set up.
Doing the Etape this year, was going to upgrade to completely new bike but I'm not sure I have the time to do the necessary research right now.
I do think I could complete it on my current set up but I would rather have an easier ride in case things dont go right.
So I might just buy a Ultegra groupset for moment and put it on the new ride whenever I get around to buying it.
Before I read this thread I had decided I would get a triple for the extra gears at both ends of the cranks.( So far I have never felt I needed extra gears for hills but defo have needed them with wind at my back)
But now Im confused mainly by the difference the amount of teeth options in rear casette and what exactly a 'compact' is ?
Any help appreciated

72hundred

Poncherello wrote: »

But now Im confused mainly by the difference the amount of teeth options in rear casette and what exactly a 'compact' is ?
Any help appreciated

A compact is usually 50/34 I believe.

Its all about the ratios too - http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gears/ you can work 'em out and mess around with 'em there.

Also if you want a very wide back cassette and a compact you'll need a long cage rear derailer to deal with all the extra links.

blorg

72hundred wrote: »

Also if you want a very wide back cassette and a compact you'll need a long cage rear derailer to deal with all the extra links.

You often don't in practice. I have run 50/34 with 12-27 on a short cage for thousands of km on my main bike with no issues. Racing, light touring, spins, Marmotte, Raid Pyreneen, you name it. My Planet X came with 50/34, short cage and 11-28 as standard, never actually rode it like that but I presume it worked. I am saving that cassette for the Marmotte.

On the flip side I tried 50/34 12-27 on my cyclocross bike and there was _severe_ chain droop in the small-small combo. Not one you should be in anyway but with the risk of chain drop in cross I replaced with a long cage.

Poncherello

Thanks for the replies but still none the wiser. What does 50/34 mean ?
Whats a Long Cage ?
What does 12-27 mean ?
Or does it matter, if I just buy the standard triple Ultegra I will be fine no ?

Sorry if there is a website or somewhere I could go to learn about this I would gladly go !
Perhaps if I wikipedia gear ratios or something I'll try that

Lumen

Poncherello wrote: »

Thanks for the replies but still none the wiser. What does 50/34 mean ?
Whats a Long Cage ?
What does 12-27 mean ?
Or does it matter, if I just buy the standard triple Ultegra I will be fine no ?

Sorry if there is a website or somewhere I could go to learn about this I would gladly go !
Perhaps if I wikipedia gear ratios or something I'll try that

50/34 is the number of teeth on the two chainrings of a compact chainset.
53/39 is the number of teeth on the two chainrings of a standard double chainset.

"Long cage" refers to the dimensions of the rear derailleur, which allows a wider range of gears on the back (a "wide range cassette").

12-27 is an example of a rear cassette (12 teeth on smallest cog, 27 teeth on largest cog).

Your ultimate gear range is determined by the ratio of the smallest number of teeth on the front to the largest number of teeth on the back.

And yes, Google is your friend