Garth On the Bomb, I seldom find myself exerting the forces it might take to flex the big ring. If I'm standing on the pedals, I'm in the middle or small ring. At any rate, I haven't noticed any ring flex and I doubt that it's an issue with the high quality TA rings.
One of the good reasons to use an 8 spd system is longer drivetrain wear life. I can burn through a 9-speed chain in 1,000 miles of touring duty, but the 8 speed chain I just got off a 1,000 mile tour with is showing very little wear. So, yes, I can run the chain on 7 of the rear cogs, but the crosschaining would wear out the chain faster. In practice, I run my current 11-32 (11, 12, 14, 16, 18, 21,26, 32) Sram cassette 46/34/22 front as follows: 46 with the smallest four cogs rear 34 with the middle 6 cogs rear 22 with the largest 4 cogs rear This gives me better chainline throughout the range and spreads out the wear amongst all of the chainrings, although the middle still wears the fastest. I've got a steel small ring, which I considered to be a good investment since I like to stand and pedal on long, steep climbs. BTW, I can look at the position of my barend lever and know where I am in the rear cluster, so I know when to shift front chainrings without having to look down at the rear cluster. Before my next tour, I'll switch over to another cassette that offers even lower gearing and less top end (it's a custom Harris Cyclery CS837 (13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 24, 26, 34). For 54.00, it's not a bad price for a more usable cruising range and a low bailout with the Schwalbe 50mm tires I run for loaded touring. Good luck with your build. Let me know if you have any other questions. Dave On Sep 14, 7:59 am, Garth <garth...@gmail.com> wrote: > Thanks for the help Dave. > > I'm about to order the Carmina in a 94/58 with the 22/34/46 as you > use. I've never used the smaller BCD . . but wondered about ring > flex on the 46t ring with the smaller bcd? I would think the rings are > thick enough these days.... but I thought I'd ask. > > I've got an XT/Tange 122.5 BB to try . . and it that's too big I'll > try the 118 IRD/Tange. > > Oh yes . . . You use a 12-32 8sp? How many cogs can you use in your > in the 46t ring, 7 I assume? > > -Garth --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
