Originally Posted by
Homebrew01
Having longer makes sense. I would be nervous only using small-small as a gauge, so could see doing both methods.
As I described in post No.27. But after a while you get a sense of things and confidence in your work. Unless there's doubt about RD capacity vs. gear spread, you can go straight to the small/small method. Then just to be sure, run the bike through the gears including big/big.
I don't think I've ever cut a chain too short except in a few rare instances where the drivetrain wanted a chain longer than new out of the box.