Originally Posted by
SurferRosa
Surprised you went there. When I tried 14-28t with a Chorus crank, the 53/39 chainring difference is so wide, I found it easier to use a 25t big rear cog. That way, all of the usual gear combinations work (except, of course, big/big and small/small). With a 28t, I either put a lot of RD strain when on big chainring combinations, or I lose some combinations in the higher gears on the small chainring (due to chain length). These are the constraints of using the short cage.
Assume you can be less careful with this combination with the chainrings closer together. Still, that seems beyond the limit of NR (without adding a Soma long cage).
With my first L'Eroica venture I had found that a first generation short cage Shimano 600 RD would handle a 28T cog and a 28T chain wrap without much fuss, so I wanted to know if a Nuovo Record would as well.
I read up on the subject here on BF (which took a while
), and although reviews and opinions were mixed, I didn't find any hard evidence that it wouldn't work on my Locomotief. So I tried it. And it worked. In both cases I adjusted the chain length so that it would accept the big/big combination, if only just.