well i just gone the other way and only run a double but middle and granny with a 24/36 set up and its great as well as having a lightweight bashgaurd which is surely more useful for real world mtb'ing?these cranksets have been out for ages but i guess this is suited to xc racing which seems to have a high threshhold of roadie crossover anyway eg rasmussen!

guess its good to have choice in the other direction anyway.

I think this is a far more sensible set up for mtbing than a triple chainset. Now that cassettes are available with 32t rings, why would you want a 22t granny ring? On the other hand, i wouldn't want to lose the 44t ring. If anything i'd like something slightly larger. I've always been baffled by people who remove their big ring and put on a bashguard - don't they enjoy speed or something?!

I've also thought for ages that triple rings are too close together, there's far more overlap of ratios than is necessary.

I've been wanting to get something like this for a while (knew the middleburn was out there) but funds don't permit.

If someone made a good value crankset in this kind of combo, i'd be interested.

dave, i believe the point is you can choose the ratios depending on where and what you ride for example i ride mostly steep up and down therefor 22/34 is used often whereas coming down i have so much gravity assistance there is just no need for a big front ring i leave that to my road bike with a 53 crankset which by the way i have fitted at one time onto my old dale frameset which is something you might be able to do if you want a bigger ring and is quite common amongst my old mates who ride thetford forest.

p.s 83.5 kmh is my current fastest on a bike will need some more slipstreaming and gravity to get anymore.

I've often thought that 3 x 9 is unnecessary.  I know that Roadies prefer really close ratios but for 'real world' MTBing I don't see it as that much of a necessity.

I had an idea to do a 'winter' 2 x 8 groupset that would be strong (8spd chain), give a usable range of gears and keep working in shitty conditions.  I thought it'd be a winner, but in the end couldn't be arsed to do anything about it.

I just bought a envy XC ringthing which protects all 3 rings. Don't see how you can get rid of the big ring, you'll be spinning out at anything over 20mph

I agree you could lose the granny ring, I wheelspin in the lowest gears on anyting that steep, but it does give you a nice range of easy gears when your legs have gone though.

i agree under normal riding conditions in the uk if your legs are strong enough thats ok, however some of us like to do some extreme up challengey stuf which i saw described once in a mag as uphill freeride although it doesn't seem to have stuck and you definately need a granny for that where i live.

again there is a choice here for the user, take off either the inner or outer for what your riding dictates and change the ratios to suit , we would all be moaning for one reason or another if we didn't have this choice available. 

tekk,

 try using a 36 middle ring this gives you the higher gears for a bit more speed and maybe the granny could go up to 24 to bring its range of use up, it works well for me.

36??! I'd be spinning out even earlier

I use it for commuting too and if anything a 48 would be better.

Actually I tend to just use the front mech in town

big ring - road

middle - crossings

granny - stuck in traffic! 

h-h-h-h-h-h-h-hybrid?!!!! how very dare you! It is a hardcore hardtail, that just happens to wear slicks, occasionally, well, ok, quite often

Still top out in the big ring off road, gravity is not enough for me

alpujarras in southern spain and i rode up on singletrack to the ski station above granada yesterday and i used the granny a lot and didnt need my missing outer ring once on the way down .

from the photo i'm seeing your an xc racer and have friends of the same ilk who would agree with you , however they are not capable of riding what i can, but would love to see you clear some of my stuff in middle ring i would be the first to kneel before you in submission

No, you can't!

It all depends on what you ride, where you ride and how fit you are.

I've shot past people who are spinning away in the big ring whilst I've been sprinting in a 32 tooth. Going fast isn't just about how many gears you've got. I've also had people shoot past me, on climbs, whilst I've been (happily) spinning away in the granny ring with them in the middle ring.

Horses for courses.

Live and let live.

Each to their own. 

It's just gears. I change 'em on my race bike to suit the course.

If we all rode the same style I, for one, would probably be doing something completely different. 

Life without my granny would be un bearable,  but I like riding up technical very steep tracks,  everyone else just wizzes down,  infact my bike spends 90% of it's ride time in the granny.

* not surprised *