Originally Posted by
HarborBandS
I know times have changed, but in my bike shop mechanic days we made sure every bike could hit every gear, and would have considered this set up "incorrect". Personally, I would never ride a bike that could lock up a chain by accidentally shifting in to a bad gear combo.
Originally Posted by
sheddle
Yeah, when I was taught to do a chain change, I was told to feed it in the big-big combo, even though that would never be used under normal circumstances.
Originally Posted by
weiwentg
Agree. A tired rider could definitely shift into this combo. If the bike's moving fast enough, locking up the chain is going to break something and it will be expensive.
The person you two are responding to has a triple crank with a 42t big, 22t small, and 11-40 cassette. I would guess that the chain was drooping in the smallest ring and smaller cogs. I think I'd rather have that than run the risk of damaging the drivetrain. If you need the small chainring, then chances are you'll need the bigger cogs anyway, and a drooping chain is not fatal.
Well.. don't know if that makes me a better rider or not
because I have no problem using it and seeing as I actually have experienced the set up I guess I know how it handles rather than imagining it. For off road with hill climbing, excess chain slap on a rigid mtb is not cool unless you like constant chain drop. Way easier to just avoid certain gear combos like high high which is quite easy considering.
It is a valid point that some shop workers can't conceive of anything outside the box and usually respond to such ideas as wrong or impossible for a few reasons. Some people probably never do more than look at and work on stock bikes and stock parts and don't experiment. Shimano says you can't run a 36T cassette on a XT derailer but it's actually common and I could even run a 40 on mine.
Old time shop workers also probably did not see the ratios that can be achieved today. If you focused on road bikes they usually had sprockets in the 11-28 range and double chainrings in the 50-30 range. Old school mtb's usually had stock clusters like 11-34 and triple chainrings in the 46-26 range. Even today the stock high range cassette is 11-36. A 40T cassette cog was not common nor was a 22 chainring. When would one ever have the chance to try a wide range scenario?
Today the clusters are edging 11-50, usually with single chainrings but 11-40 on compact doubles isn't a stretch at all. Sure, if you want to stick with stock or common ratios you will avoid extremes but people today in gravel and off road are pushing the boundaries of wide ratios for some pretty adaptable configurations.