Road Cycling - I am full of questions today

This AM went on 40 mile ride with 3 buds.. one of them said that my chain level was not very good. I said what? he said that I ride on my big chain ring too much. I do too..? is this bad? the route that we took was pretty flat and he said that he does not go to the big one unless he is cooking fast or going downhill.

any thoughts on this?

Thanks much

Chaz

Do what's comfortable to you. If you can finish a 40-mile ride fresh by riding in the big ring, by all means do so! If you're spent by the end of the ride, then try something else. No one can tell you how you should pedal; it's an individual thing. Do what's comfortable.

It's an individual thing I do most of my riding on my big ring. Do whats most comfortable for you.

So it has nothing to do with the level or angle of the chain? and it wont cause any extra wear on it?

Thanks

Maybe he meant that you were in a big-big combo too much? That can be bad for a variety of reasons as it causes your chainline to be fairly heavily deflected. What cog do you normally use when in the big ring? I find that I tend to stay in my 53x{15,17,19** for most of my ride with the 53x17 being the most used. I will try and dump to the small ring in the hills first before jumping to a lower gear in the rear simply because I run less of a risk for throwing the chain.

Actually I discovered today that the noise I've been starting to get from my drivetrain is due to my 53x17 being a bit worn. Looks like I'll be replacing the middle carrier soon.

Whay Khuon said. They probably meant that you were cross chaing too much. Don't use your 53x24. Shift to your small chainring instead. The goal being to keep your chain as parallel with the plane of your bike as possible.

Also note that many modern cassettes have the upper three or four cogs bolted together as a single unit on a carrier, followed by the middle two as another bolted togetrher cogset and then followed by loose individual cogs. Additionally, on higher end cassettes the upper cogset is usually made of higher priced titanium. For instance, my cassette is a Dura-Ace 12-27 9-speed and thus breaks out as 12-13-14-15-{17-19**-{21-24-27** (titanium cogs are in bold and cogsets are delimited by {**). Therefore, it's usually cheaper to replace the middle or smaller cogs. Being in a big-big combo (big ring in the front and last couple of big cogs in rear) for extended periods of time means even greater wear on those expensive cogs.