Originally Posted by
himespau
So far, I've never had to remove more than would leave me Big/Big+1". I may do more than big/big+2". It's actually more like 3". I'm cheap so I'm leary of cutting off too much, so I was trying to say that I leave it longer than needed and then cut it back until it's no longer too long (checking before each cut that I still have the Big/Big + 1").
I'm like you, and don't like to ride with the minimum length, but I don't like to waste time, so I do it either of two ways.
1- if I
know that capacity will not be an issue, I simply use the small/small method and pull up the slack, or use a variant of the Shimano method.
2- if capacity may be an issue, I loop the big/big add the inch and count the maximum number of links I may cut off. Then I use abovel method subject to that limitation.
The second method generally only comes into play with wide range gearing, and 90% of the time I can dispense with needing to precheck via big/big.