I agree. Bicycles are, after all, fairly simple machines. It will be readily apparent to anyone with reasonable mechanical knowledge whether a gear combination works or not. If it doesn't work, don't use it. I don't follow arbitrary rules in any area of life, least of all concerning bicycles.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Houston, TX
> I know most of the literature says don't use the small-small or big-big
> combinations. Doesn't this generally refer to triples and/or modern bikes
> with wider spacing? I would think that on bikes in the CR timeframe, with
> double chainrings, cross-chaining would not be as big of an issue, unless
> the chainstays were really short.
>
> I only have 12 speeds, I'd like to use them all.
>
> Marcus Helman
> Huntington Woods, MI