Originally Posted by
HTupolev
That would imply that the 3x5 system is only getting seven useful ratios.
3x5 MTB triples from the mid-80s were often something like 46/36/26 with 14-16-20-24-30 freewheels. This is what this looks like in log space (3x5 on the left, 11-42 11-speed cassette on the right):
I can sort of think of a conservative way of reading this chart to see only eight useful ratios, but definitely no fewer. An enthusiastic double-shifter would see at least nine, and possibly up to twelve.
I could see eight, because you picked 14 and not 13 for the smallest cog. Yes there are more unique ratios but you wouldn't use them. The big shift to the bottom ring is a bailout granny for when you suddenly run out of torque and want to dump all the gears, it's not for step-and-a-half shifting in the lower half of the range, and in the upper half it would be cross chained. All this is moot, anyhow, these systems are 30 years gone. 1x11 is really, authentically, objectively better.