Originally Posted by Burton

Why should I care what Sheldon Brown thinks if what I have in my hands works? With all due respect to a man that made some major contributions to the bicycling industry - he was still a man and not right all the time nor was he gifted with perfect spelling and diction. He deserves a lot of respect but lets not try to make a god out of the guy.

And no - I didn`t replace anything. In fact the only reason to replace spacers would be determined by the shifter being used because the cable travel is indexed differently according to the number of speeds the shifter is designed for.

And no-one said the chain was weaker. There are design parameters that need to be achieved and thats true for chains and frames alike. A road frame may have different strength requirements from a touring bike or a XC bike but they`re the same regardless of what material is used for the frame. The only advantage strength to weight materials have is the opportunity to fabricate a lighter product with the same strength characteristics.

Sounds like you`re being argumentative for no good reason. When I have a few free moments later this week I`ll post some pictures.