Originally Posted by
banerjek
Think of it this way -- the RD has to be able to deal with your smallest cog, so reducing the size of your largest ones should have no effect on performance.
I'm a firm believer in not counting links for purposes of sizing -- just size as if you were putting on the chain for the first time. ColinL: this guy's riding a trike with a triple up front and I'm not sure what the back.
Ramwing, the best way to size your chain is probably to put the gears in the big ring biggest cog combo with the chain skipping the RD and then adding one more full link.
1. I agree and that's why I asked what I did. increasing your largest cog or increasing your chainring size(s) can result in a chain too short, but it's a lot harder to have a chain which was working suddenly be too long.
2. I knew it wasn't a road bike but I didn't know what it had drivetrain-wise. I assumed it has a rear derailleur.
3. that is one way to do it, a way that can result in a chain being too short if you to a cassette with a larger cog than what you sized it with. you can also run the longest chain possible, which involves putting your chain in the small/small combo and measuring conservatively, then removing a link until the drivetrain functions.
I know we don't ride in small/small because of epic crosschaining, that's not the point. the point is that you can use any cassette your RD supports without resizing the chain.
perhaps the OP has threaded the chain the wrong way through the rear derailleur.