Don't talk to me about the Big ring!
I have a MTB with slicks that is used for bitumen riding only, after 3 years it has rarely been on the two smaller rings. During a bout of flu in January I decided if I can't ride I would do some work on my bike. I thought it would be a good idea to remove the two small rings and have an 8speed bike instead of a 24. After removing the front derailleur and the smallest ring, I discovered that the middle ring had to stay to keep the big ring attached. I also removed the front gears gripshift, and cables. I then went back to bed to sleep off the flu.
Once better, I rode the bike and needless to say without a front derailleur the chain kept falling off the big ring when I changed gears on the back. Time to put things back as they were. I tried to put the gripshift back together but it was too hard. I put the front derailleur back on but have to use a 1 inch screw to keep it aligned as there is no cable to create tension. It all works very good now minus 16 gears.
The reason for doing it was so I could get used to staying in big gears up hills so when I went back to my road bike, the gears wouldn't feel to heavy.
The moral to the story: When home from work with the flu, leave the bike alone and stay in bed.
CHEERS.
Mark