[LEAKYSEALS951]

One can go down a rabbit hole of changing driveline stuff. Some people like to tinker, and I've certainly done it since I was a kid.

My current frankenbike setup is (something like) an sram rear cassette/derailleur/shifter combo and a triple front shimano setup on a campagnolo 102mm widtch bb, with some custom micro cogs... something like a 48-11 top gear and 20-36 low gear for mountain cross type stuff. It works- sortof.

Here are some things you'll get to deal with when you start to mix and match with triple front chainrings and such.

1.(mentioned already) rear stay width. In the old days, everything was 130mm? Now, you have the 135mm? so you get to stretch the rear (as mentioned) to get the rear wheel on. That's not what you want to mess with when you are on a ride- although with disc, you are probably already at 135mm. Perhaps there are even wider settings. I can't keep up.
2.( mentioned already) narrower chains made for these newer 11-12 speed thingees are not going to play well on the 8/9/10 thicker front chainrings.
3. The wider rear cassettes when combined with the triple front chainring will have more chance to cause cross shifting issues. For example- in your other thread about which gears to avoid, you don't want to run granny gear (inboard) in the front, and high (meaning the outboard 11tooth/ or 12t (whichever it is) in the back. When you widen the rear cassette width, you run into an entire range of unuseable gears. For example, on my bike, if Im in my 20 front granny gear, the chain catches on the middle front chainring gear from about the middle of the rear cassette out- so (something like)(20x11,12,13,14,15,17,20, etc... cannot be used...only 20x ,30,32,34,36) works if that makes sense.
4. If the rear cassette adds much gear range- for example 12-28 old gear ratios- now 11-34 new ratios, the derailleur arm might not have enough length(throw) to keep the chain tight in all ratios (especially when a triple front chainring is involved.)
5. If the rear cassette adds much gear range- you might need to add more/ new chain for more length, which contributes to problem #4. If chain length is not added, you might get unuseable large- to large gear combos which you have to remember not to shift into- easier said than done- while riding.
6.If the rear cassette adds more gears (say 11 speed vs 9) at all, you "might" run into front derailleuer alignment issues. perhaps not- but this can be a pain that can cause much hassle/missed shifts/ dropped chains off front when you go down rabbithole of modifying/ adjusting front derailleur to accomodate the chain splaying out to wider rear cassette widths. Also- the front derailluer is made to contact the width chain it was made for- for example, a front 8 spd derailluer will shift an 8 speed width chain fine, but is too wide to change a 10 speed chain as effectively. You will get poorer shifting and potentially more jumped chains as result.
7. Depending on how close the front derailluer is to the frame, it might not even be able to be adjusted to jump the chain from the middle to the small front chainring if the rear is in the 34/36 (whatever the lowest rear inboard chainring) position is.

Probably looks like I've typed a lot-and at two a.m. in the morning, I feel I am being unneccessarily wordy- except, I have run into every single one of the issues in my tinkering.


Personally, I'd just ride the bike, get some miles, and if the bug still afflicts you, get a whole new bike, or upgrade at a later time.

The triple chainrings in the front are great for a lot of gear range, but they (especially when tinkered with) are not the smoothest shifting things compared to double - or especially the 1x systems.

Good luck.