converting a road bike from a double to a triple

Do l need to change the left shifter and front mech as well as the crankset?

Depends on the group set and age

What he said.

With wide range cassettes and compacts though, why would you go for a triple nowadays now that 10+ speed cassettes mean you don’t have the problem of old with wide jumps between gears?

Shimano groupset, probably 9 speed tiagra.

Nemesis – I give you touring

Yeah, I figured but I still reckon my point holds. Back in the day, you needed a triple to get the range because cassettes typically were fairly narrow range but that’s changed now.

Anyway, I’ll not hijack the thread.

I’d do the calcs on a new compact setup vs 3x on what you have and see what bargains are around on clearance stock. Might get you what you want with a nice new drive train at a decent price.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/touring-bike-gearing

might help

Gear Ratios: How to Select Touring Bike Gearing

and this

Fwiw for a number of years tiagra was a single shifter system with double or triple covered by same shifter.

On the road having no big uneven jumps between gears is almost as important than the top and bottom range

Xt triple touring here after trying a tour with one of the new fangled fancy bolt on extensions and a super compact triple it was shit

Basically the answer is yes

If you don’t need the top end you could keep your shifter and possibly front mech’ and just run the inner 2 rings of the triple. The shifters are quite pricey

Shimano road triple are sold with a 30 inner ring. But you can fit a smaller inner ring. But the middle ring nust be 39 or bigger

Spa cycles sell touring triple chainsets

Depending on the year tiagra shifters were all triple compatible. – there was no double specific option

Or look at a super compact or alpine double. 26/40 or 28/42 ratios seem to be available from spa cycles. Drop your ratios for touring, without changing too much of the rest of the bike?

Nip over to what was the CTC forum for all the possible options you will ever need and some you won’t.

Thanks for your help trail rat, and the links were very informative.
I think I’ll try a triple ( got a few bikes I could borrow from ) and see how the original shifter copes.

Had similar woes with my Tricross few years back,and price wise was cheaper to change rear cluster to wider n lower set and rear changer to longer reach,than change crankset/axle etc.

Still have old block n bits for spares etc

I think I’ll try a triple ( got a few bikes I could borrow from ) and see how the original shifter copes.

If you google the model number of your shifter, you should be able to find out if it’s triple-compatible or not.

You might need to change the bottom bracket axle thingy………..