Originally Posted by
Tom Bombadil
If I owned a bike with a 52/42/30 triple, I could have the teeth ground off of the large ring, to make it into a chain guard. Then I could ride with long pants and not have to use a pants strap. It, the large ring, would provide more value to me in that way than it would as a sprocket.
That is what I plan to do on my old MTB with a 26/36/46 triple. I almost never use the 46 ring offroad. I'll probably go with a 11/32 cassette.
The new 29er I might buy comes with a single 32 ring up front.