BT Humble wrote:

Incidentally, why do roadies have such a loathing for triple front
chainrings? Is it just a machismo thing, or does it have some logical
basis?

I have several roadie friends with triples. Mind you, the people I know
that have them don't really need them. For most roadies its unneeded
gearing. I know others with compact cranks to sort out the low end. It's
all personal preference. In a race situation you'd only ever use the
triple during disastrously steep hill-climbing scenarios (we have quite
a few in CBR)and even then there'd be someone grinding out in a bigger
gear and sailing past you up the hill while you spin.