Did not expected that many reactions - The chain slap when in the big ring and a small ring without overly cross-chaining, does work for me. The effort to push the pedals is approx the same when using the middle ring. Actually, when on smooth roads, I used to ride the front middle ring and the second smallest ring on the cassette. Changing gears usually was done only between middle and biggest ring on front. Now I will need only to change rings on the cassette. one up/one down that is.