Originally Posted by
Bianchigirll
OK so in basic terms regardless of the freewheel (cassette) a halfstep is a difference of 3-5 teeth on the chainrings. so a step is a more standard difference of 9,10, 12 (52/42, 52/39, 53/39) teeth?
I don't think you can look at half-step
without looking at the freewheel. IMO, half-step means half the average freewheel step (or at least close to it). So an 11,13,15,18,22,26,34 7-speed freewheel has steps ranging from ~15% to ~22% (ignoring the last 26-to-34 bailout step of 31%) with an average of ~19%. So a chainring difference of about 9 or 10% will "half-step" this cassette - 48x44 or 50x45.