Originally Posted by BoSoxYacht

Is wear really damage? At extreme angles the drivetrain will wear more rapidly but is it really a big deal to you? For many years I used a 53/39 with a 12-25 cassette, often crosschained for short climbs(1-2 miles). With that type of use, I would typically get about 18k miles out of a cassette, and 40k miles from the big ring, before starting to notice any roughness when installing a new chain.