Cycling Gears - Double vs. Triple

Cycling Gears

One of the most important decisions a cyclist has to make, is what gearing setup to purchase.  There's different gearing options in the front (crankset) and in the back (cassette).

In general terms, bikes are often referred to as Double or Triple setups.  What this is actually referring to is the Chainring (or crank) on your bike.  That's the large gear in the front attached to the pedal.  A double has two chainrings and a triple has three.

Most bikes that you see will typically come with a double or triple.  However there are a also a couple of other popular variations - a Compact Double and a Fixed Gear (fixie) bike.

Triple

A triple crankset is what you'll find on most hybrid bikes and many road bikes.  Hybrids use them because weight is not a factor (doubles weigh less) and hybrid cyclists aren't interested in performance and weight, as much as they're interested in climbing up a steep hill without working too hard.  Triple cranksets have smaller gears that make hill climbing easier.  If you watch someone going uphill on a hybrid, you'll see them spinning their wheels really fast (perhaps 110 rpm).  That's because they're not strong enough to climb the hill in a bigger gear.  So triple's are the perfect gearing for hybrids.

Many road bikes use triple's as well.  You'll find them mostly on entry-level road bikes, all the way up to mid-level.  Their advantage is that you'll have gearing that makes it much easier to get up steep hills.  If you're not a particularly strong cyclist, than a triple is for you.  Their disadvantage is that they weigh more than a double, and shifting between each of the three (triple) chain rings can be troublesome.  They just seem to have more mechanical issues, and you're more likely to have your chain "jump off" of the sprockets when shifting.

Cyclists like to call a triple crankset "granny gears", meaning that only their grandmother would use a triple.  Chances are that these same cyclists have wished that they had a triple when climbing a mountain.  They're just too macho to admit it.

Double

A double crankset is what you'll find on most high-end road bikes.  There's two reasons why - they're lighter and have fewer mechanical issues than triples.  Light weight is important to road cyclists and dealing with shifting problems is pretty much eliminated with a double.  The disadvantage of having a double, is that if you're not a strong cyclist, than you won't have a low enough gear to get up a steep hill.  You need to try out a double on your regular rides to see if you're strong enough to use one.

Compact Double

A compact double crankset bridges the gap between a double and triple.  It's light, has few mechanical issues, and gives you lower gearing for climbing hills.  However, the lowest gear isn't quite as low as a triple; so you really need to try out a compact double before deciding if it's right for you.  These are very popular and make a good choice if you're a fast rider and a strong climber.

Fixed Gear

A fixed gear bike is typically used for city riding, where you don't need to do a lot of shifting, and you'd prefer to eliminate all of the extra weight that gearing adds to the bike.  Serious recreational cyclists have a "fixie" bike that they'll occasionally use in place of their normal road bike, because it's great exercise.  Instead of shifting to make your ride easier, a fixie makes your ride harder.  Go figure.

Cassettes

Within each of these groups you'll find that there's various combinations of cassette (rear wheel) gearing and crank (front wheel) gearing.  Some manufacturers offer 9 or 10 gears on the rear wheel, while others offer 11.  You'll need to try out bikes that have various gear setups in order to determine what's right for you, and where you ride.

So which one should you use on a Century?  You're certainly better off having less weight (double), however if you're not really strong, than go with the triple.  It's better to be safe than sorry.