is triple speed dead?

ive got 3 bikes, two of which are double speed (50-34 and 40-28) and one triple speed.

triple speed always seems to have shifting problems, compatibility issues etc and my 40-28 gets me up most hills.

is the triple pointless? most people seem to say compact double has killed it off. any thoughts?

There will always be a market for triples ie touring with panniers etc

is triple speed dead?

Nope, just less prevalent

I have 3x on my tourer/cross/gravel bike. The range is handy, though wider range cassettes achieve much the same if you’re not fussed about steps between gears. If I was only touring on it I could live with a low 2x.

Dead

There are so many lighter alternatives with todays larger range cassettes & chain ring options its pointless carrying around all that bulk for no reason

Hope not, I don’t have a bike that isn’t a triple. Except for the rohloff of course.

29 was dead last month.. look where that’s going.
Give it 12 months and it’ll be the next big thing.

love the big ring, leaves you doublers and errr singlers for dead on non tech trails.

triple speed always seems to have shifting problems

You need a decent bike mechanic!

I typically use my MTB’s for cross country in the countryside – i.e. not trail centres. 1x can’t cope with road sections. Even on my 2x bike I miss a full spread of gears. I’ll forever be fitting triples!

out of a statistically significant sample of 5, a triple, a triple, a double, a double and a single… all are clearly alive, and none have shifting problems.
if I were to be really picky, one of the shifters could do with being opened up, and cleaned out, cos the shift release is a bit fussy. but that’s on the rear, not the front, so doesn’t count. unless all bikes with mechs are dead, and SS is the future.

Dead

Not on my bikes it isn’t & I don’t intend to change.

triple speed always seems to have shifting problems,

Nope, not here. Maybe you need to learn how to set it all up? Not that it takes much.

It might look a bit poorly in the UK but it appears alive and well on the continent.

For general trail riding I “need” the high gears: the speed is where the fun is. And I cannot see the point of the very low gears provided by the big cassettes?, I’ve never felt in need of them. As for lighter, really? You may not have a 44 tooth chainring but you probably have a similar size cog at the back,so where is the weight saving? And you’re adding weight at the back of the bike: until it became “unfashionable” it was accepted that the weight should be in the centre of the bike for balance and stability. But clearly fashions change and marketing bull works…..

No.
🙂

I’ve got a triple on one of my road bikes, so not dead for me.

Triple on the hardtail, nothing like getting in ‘big ring’ and leaving everyone behind. Still amuses me that an 8 year old drivetrain is still providing a better day out than the 1x club. I can spin up a wall then push down a road/fire track so much faster than the current trends. I’m faster and my knees thank me, plus I don’t have to push up those hideous inclines.

Dead

Not totally convinced on the lighter argument but not seen the numbers not sure that a 42 out back is lighter than a 22 up front

Got some triples but then again the headline will bring us crawling out also a couple of compacts and 1x
For a real weight saving looking forward to the creep down of Eagle 12 speed 1x need some sort of analysis of riding style so can work out where in block need close ratios plus will take out cost of front electronic shifter

It still works on my bike as does the double on the other.

Can’t remember when I last saw one in the wild… maybe not dead but certainly forgotten by most people. In mountain biking it’s a throwback to the roadie days even 10sp cassettes gave you the range that made doubles just as good -3×10!! because you didn’t have enough gears on 3×9??

see them all the time, not gone, not forgotten

3×9 on my Soul which is my do everything bike from winter road bike (with road wheels) to bike packing tourer. I appreciate the range of gears and don’t find triples much of a problem to set up. Also, and possibly more important, I am too cheap to update. The real crunch will come if 3x mechs and other spares become hard to find

I’m still 3×9 too and when forced to upgrade I’ll be going for another triple for as long as they’re available.

10sp cassettes gave you the range that made doubles just as good

Why does anyone even think that? Double and single setups don’t come anywhere close to a 44 tooth chainring and 11 tooth cog combination.

Touring, amazingly, is becoming fashionable again (the last exploitable niche, apart from cycling between skyscrapers on a high wire).

I think the manufacturers have got this wrong.

I used to use 3×10 on my road bike because it was used for training, and there are lots of hills round here that couldn’t be done in Z2 without the triple. The compact double was nearly as low but the gaps in the range drove me nuts.

However I went back to the compact to try it again and because I’m not anal about sticking to z2 any more. And I do far fewer road rides. A wide range cassette though would work for me.

I have 3×9 on my long distance MTB because it gives me high gears for eating up road and a nice low gear for winching up big mountains when tired. I’d go 2×10 on that if I had the inclination to upgrade. I doubt I’d go 1x because I’d miss the range, I’d get bad chain lines and the cassettes are stupid money.

Still running 3×10 SLX on my Clockwork 29er! Use it as a commuter/xc/bikepacking rig. Have a single ring setup on my Four for playing in the woods though.

3×9 here, I spend 90% time on the middle ring, but i do appreciate the range, I live on a long residential hill, going down the big ring will allow me to do about 33mph before I spin out, which stops the urgency for most cars to try and pass as I can keep up with the traffic as long as they are not excessively speeding.

And on the way back up the granny gets used when I run out of puff about half way up.

What I’d like to see is more/affordable cassettes with a 10t high gear.

Triple speed will never die.

I assume we are talking Sturmey-Archer 3 speed. 🙂

Compacts are the devils arse, great if you rarely drop onto the smaller ring, otherwise just a pain in the arse cog swapping both ends and big jumps in the cassette to get the bottom end, oh yes and £50 for an ultegra triple chainset a few years back was quite persuasive

I think the problem was that 3×9 really did it all. You could have the range and even get rid of the jumps. Total marketing nightmare. What were they going to do. Bring XT every year forever as 3×9 with the slogan “No change here it just works”.

So they started making us worry about how many gears were reproduced in the overlap so it wasn’t really 27 gears after all……

Not in my shed, but I’m not vey fashionable.

Just took this for a pre-dinner spin – 3X9, 26″ wheels! (Old pic: does have a dropper now)

I needed all 3 rings!

It’ll stay that way til it’s retired. It’s only dead for new bikes and people who must have the latest thing. (I have 2X10 on my other Yeti)

Double Yeti – showing off! Love it though – and dropper is way more important than 3X/2x/1X IMO. I have all three and though I love the 1x the road sections and downhills I want more range – looking at the sunrace 11-50 cassette and then making the chainring bigger!

Double Yeti – showing off!

Both old! Both 2nd hand! (Both brillaint 🙂 )