If you are a weaker rider and or you plan to tour with weight and do hill climbs then consider triple cranks.
Road bike triple vs double.
And the next time you go buy a bike more manufacturers are putting compacts on their road bikes.
Road double 43 5 mm.
In each case the chainrings are 50 39 and 30 tooth.
Traditionally entry level road bikes come with a compact or a triple and high end bikes come with a standard or a compact and this is done for good reason as you develop as a rider then you can build up to a standard crank.
Double or triple chainring.
Shimano spec measured to the midpoint between the rings.
The smaller 50 and 34 tooth chainrings helped open up road cycling to a much wider.
There are always sides to a discussion involving tradition and emotion.
If you already have a road bike and the hills are getting more challenging you don t need to buy a new steed.
With typical 5 mm chainring spacing this puts the inner at 41 mm the outer at 46 mm.
Shimano spec measured to the middle ring.
At this time of limited choice a triple was appealing for any non racing applications particularly touring or audax bikes laden with luggage the lower gears helping to spin up the climbs.
Shimano offers triple chainsets for its three cheaper road bike groupsets claris sora and tiagra.
Specialized diverge comp the 2017 version gets a sub compact chainset triple chainset.
Progressive all road performance new 10 speed tiagra provides serious entry level riding performance with cascaded technology from top tier lines.
A triple chainset is one with three chainrings.
So many arguments about the use of a single front chainring versus a double or triple.
Older bikes with 110 spacing would be on the smaller end of this range newer bikes with 120 mm spacing normally use 42 mm.
The trend toward smaller gears in the mid 2000 s gave birth to the compact double chainring which is used on most contemporary road bikes.
For example if you take a brand of bike and look at their entry road bike it will typically have a triple or compact.
Before the compact came along your crankset choice was largely split between a double for racing and a triple for touring and audax riding.
The introduction of the compact chainset in the mid 2000s was a defining point in the path of road riding.
The high end bike will often have a traditional double or compact.
In this case tradition has generally stood with a single front chainring for single speed bikes think kids bikes city type bikes and the grandma bikes with multi speed hubs.
Consider swapping out your standard double chainring crankset for a compact model.
A traditional double for a road bike may be more than most people want for casual riding.