Originally Posted by
Mithrandir
That is indeed also a possibility. I guess the problem I'm running into is that the 48 may have been just a bit too tall for me, but as you said there's still room to grow into it.
I just don't want to run into the situation where I have to constantly switch between mid and big rings because my legs have now increased into an overlapping range. I used to do that a lot on my old MTB and it didn't annoy me then, but these past 8 months being stuck in mostly 1 ring has opened my eyes to how much easier it is to ride in one ring.
Yeah, that's one of the reasons I set up that 1x5 arrangement. It's nice not having to worry about shifting the front. That said, you've got a very wide range to play with on that cassette. I'll bet you'll be able to transition to riding the big ring much the same way you ride the middle ring without too much cross-chaining or other difficulty. The only issue would be if you're really bent on having very close spacing; I'm not, so I can't really comment on that aspect.