Is cross-chaining disastrous? Find out what the manufacturers say

It must be a slow news day in the cycling world to bring this one up again.

I run a single 53t carbon chainring with a 11 x26 cassette . Have that set  up on my bikes for a few years now . No issue whatsoever it works just fine . I usually climbing when I’m in the bigger gears and I climb mostly out of my seat and it all works great . Climbed the  ,alp d huez . Most of the climbs in Nice , climbed  few mountains in Lucca back last October . Climbed in Barcelona and even the highlands of Scotland,north west gairloch area.    I always since day 1 been on my single ring 53t .( 15 years ) ...the way to go if you have the power . 

There is a difference between big/big and small/small....   small/small has much more torque generated than big/big...  I have used big/big  combo for DECADES despite the bemoaning of those that were "experts".  My chains last longer than anyone I know and I never replace cogs or rings.  Sure, I don't ride around big/big gut going there for a few minutes to crest a climb is no big deal.  Sram got it EXACTLY right, pros stay in the BIG ring as long as possible.  

1x here, so it's a given. Couldn't care less as long as it works and is quiet.

Oh, hello, old friend. Yes, three years on and it's still wrong to cross-chain. If you're having to do it you've probably got too big a gap between the number of teeth on your chainrings. That's why triple chainsets allow a better chain line and more even wear across the chain rings - and cassette - not to mention slower chain wear. Oh, and do fuck off, SRAM. 

Funny how the comments match the makers products isn't it?  You can  getaway with cross chaining more nowadays as chains are narrower and more bendy (possibly being patly a result of being knackered more quickly as well) . Also cassettes are not much wider that they were in the days of a 6 speed block so things  still work. 

A chain is at its most efficient when run straight. Can't argue with that and any derailieur is actually the wrong use for a chain.

Like much in cycling, things like the SRAM yaw set up are designed to compensate for lack of skill or fitness. Chuck in marketing and the centuries old desire for something new and ideas change. 

Whatever, bending a chain is wrong . 

If you don't crosschain then you don't have the number of gears you think you have.

It's not as bad as cross-dressing or cross-contamination, so I think it's ok.

Ive been saying this for years, but manufacturers love to take your REPLACEMENT money, its no wonder SRAM is a fan, does it create wear, well why did they invent taller/narow wide teeth on chainring, at extream angles, those teeth chewing away at chain, chain chewing at teeth, chain chewing away on cassette, your call, Your money, SO all those older riders were wrong, & their cassettes werent as wide as now.

Quote:

And in the case of big-big, minuscule efficiencies lost to cross-chaining are offset by efficiency gained because of larger bend radii for the chain

Says Sram, the company that just introduced special smaller chainrings and sprockets... they know that bigger rings ARE more efficient.

Hmm. What about Shimano GRX 1x? Time to update the article?

Oh god, this again? Why does road.cc keeps recycling old articles? I've seen this one at least five times now 8(

Dear Sram, yes fine for your pro riders they might well change the total drive system three times in one weekend of racing but not us mortals the cost is too much. In my younger days (in my sixties) I use to change at speed one ring up and one cassette cog down or reverse it depending on the level, up or downhill this way I doubled the gears on my road or off road bikes but never crossed ring if I could help! Yes keep the chain as straight as you can, just comment since Sram can sell my chains their way.

It's about time we had chainrings that moved in and out to completely avoid cross-chaining. Change gear and the chainring slides across to keep it in perfect alignment.

First!!!!! No, wait...

Road.cc, have you updated the content of this article since 12- and 13-speed came along? Would be useful to know what the manufacturers currently think of cross-chaining different systems. Thanks.

But why cross chain anyway ?  The ratios are duplicated elsewhere in the gears anyway so there's really no need.

I only do it by accident - I'd not do it intentionally. 

Presumably bikes with longer chainstays are less affected by cross-chaining? It's surprising none of them mentioned that. Mine are reasonably long as my frame is based on a CX design.

That said, I tend to cross chain less than I used to. I try to use the little ring if I want to drop below big ring and 3rd biggest sprocket. I don't think I've ever used big ring - biggest sprocket. That does seem a bit wrong. Apparently there is a small wattage expense for extreme cross training. But I do get what peeps are saying about keeping it going in the big ring on short climbs.

I stopped smoking nearly forty years ago, so I don't have an actual fag packet to work it out on the back of, but here's the set up on my 'jazzy' bike:

When I'm on the big ring I go up the cassette as high as the 21T sprocket to find my preferred gear range, which on this bike is 62.8 inches in old money.  Even here there is a degree of cross-chaining going on.

If I go barmy I could go to the 24(?)T sprocket to get a 55.0 gear (but why bother? I can do a double shift - crikey, these days even out of the saddle - and get a gear 10" below with far less chain deflection). 

Going any higher up the cassette whilst on the big ring - initially to get a gear of 50.7" - would make me a silly sausage:  on the 34T chain ring I have 52.8 & 47.2 either side of the centre of the cassette. 

To go big-big I will get a 44.0" gear, but on the 34T chain ring I have 42.7 & 37.4 right where they're meant to be and almost perfectly aligned. 

So, no, I don't cross-chain.  Er, well, not if I can avoid it.

"At SRAM we love big-big. Amongst mechanics on the NORBA and Mountain Bike World Cup circuit (many years ago!), we called big-big the 'pro gear’, because professionals would ride it all the time, no matter what their mechanics told them." - JP McCarthy, Road Product Manager, SRAM.

Well given that the silly buggers you work for don't seem to make triple chainsets I hope you'll forgive me for not being swayed by this, JP

@woldsman: that's an excellent discription of what you do and don't do, but less satisfactory is the why. You're not on your own there.

I don't think anyone's saying they cross-chain for the sake or love of it. The two camps seem to be 'I avoid cross-chaining' and 'I don't avoid cross-chaining - so what?'.

It's not as if cycling's received wisdom isn't thrown out of the window every now and then (fatter, lower pressure tyres being a recent rewriting of it), so just saying something's a bad idea doesn't float, in these days of easy measurement.

If you avoid cross-chaining: why?

ClubSmed, that's how multi chain rings have always worked, my ancient but lovely 3X7 XT seems to only have a range of 11 or 12 gears, and my 3X9 XTR maybe 14 or 15.  Could be one of the reasons the 1X thing has taken off.  I wish my next bike to have a Rohloff.

Doesn't chain length have something to do with this?  When setting up the length of chain, Shimano say to set the chain on big big, without derailleur, the chain should be straight with a small V in a couple of links or straight and add a couple of links.  If I were then to ride big big wouldn't my rear derailleur be very stretched out, almost horizontal, and in small small there is so much slack that the chain rubs on the chain on the  jockey wheels.  Less of an issue on doubles I guess.

I'm a serial cross-chainer and masher (I blame BMX growing up).  I never think about it and no one has ever pointed it out. Maybe the guys I ride with are too polite.