Trek Madone 4.5 triple

[lenandsons]

Hi All

Looking to upgrade from my Trek 1400 to this, anyone have experience of this bike, or has other options?

Thanks

[Parsnip]

Do not get a bike with a triple.

Get a full size double if you live somewhere flat/like a lower cadence or a compact if you need help on the hills. A triple is just a pain in the arse - have one on my winter bike and you spend half of the ride trying to find the right gear and the other half realising how badly cross-chained you are.

IMO it is not worth the hassle of having a triple for the benefit it gives.

[anonymous-user]

agree with parsnip, the boardman has a 54t/36t and thats enough for anything. normally i just leave it in 54 and slug it out with burning thighs but then i am a hero!

[lenandsons]

My current bike is a triple and to be honest never had an issue, like the girly gearing as well, as I am unfortunatly on the wrong end of 250lbs at the moment so any help up long hills is always welcome. Whilst on the long hill topic, any tips on improving hillclimbing performance more than welcome

[arryb]

I do a lot of cycling and use a triple (it was the only bike left and had a BIG discount so I couldn't say no) - doesn't cause me any issues although I don't tend to use the smaller ring (think they're 52, 42, 30) due to being a hero and I see using it as a sign of weakness But it has helped on a few occasions when I'm very tired and the hill is very steep!

[b2hbm]

I'm in Lincolnshire (v flat) & use 2 bikes depending on how hard I feel like riding. The best one has 52/42 and the second bike is heavier but with a 52/42/30, both bikes having the same rear cassette. Quite honestly there's no problem with the triple because unless you really need the low range gears you just use it like a double, so around here both bikes feel similar. However if we go off to hilly areas then I take the triple simply because I've got bail-out gears on the 30 ring.

I looked at both compact & triples when building the Bianchi and opted for the triple because it gives me more flexibility in gear ratios. The problem I see with a compact is that if you want really low gears you need something like 50/34, but the 34 is too low for flat riding and I'd end up with poor chainline on the 50 ring. A more usable 50/36 starts to get less usable (for me) in hilly areas.

So - if I only rode around here where it's dead flat then I'd be ok with a double. But if I could only run 1 bike and wanted to take it on holiday then it would have a triple because it's a "one-size-fits-all" bike and it's not cool to walk up hills.

[b2hbm]

lenandsons said:

Whilst on the long hill topic, any tips on improving hillclimbing performance more than welcome

Ok, you do need fitness to climb long hills, but I reckon there's a fair bit of mental attitude as well. We're in Lincolnshire now, where a hill is anything over 10 foot hight, but previously lived in Yorkshire for 20+ years where they do have lumpy roads. There are short steep things at 1:6 or thereabouts, and also longer drags where it feels like you're climbing for a mile or so.

Short steep hills I tended to build up as much speed as possible and blast up them, getting out of the saddle as soon as it started on the gradient. That works wellif you know the hill and what gear to use.

For longer climbs my technique is to alternate between sitting & standing. Standing uses different leg muscles as well as your bodyweight but raises your heartrate slightly compared to being seated, so you'll get breathless sooner. Sitting allows you to get your breath back (relatively speaking ! ) So as I climb, if the gradient rises I get out of the saddle for a few seconds then sit again as soon as it eases slightly. If it's constant gradient then 5-10 second intervals works for me.

I tend to use cadences of 60-70 because if I try to keep normal cadences of 90-100 I tend to lose it very quickly. Drop below 60 and I feel it in my joints and end up going even slower. In the end it doesn't really matter what gear you use as long as you get up, and the more you climb the better you'll get.