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feature
crosschain.jpgIs cross-chaining disastrous? Find out what the manufacturers say
Generations of cyclists have known that cross-chaining is A Bad Thing. It's one of those rules you get taught very early on. Ride with the chain on the small chainring (on the chainset, the component your pedals are attached to) and the smallest sprocket on the cassette (the cluster of cogs attached to the hub of the rear wheel) – as in fig 1 above – or on the large chainring and the largest sprocket – as in fig 2 – and anyone you're riding with is likely to alert you to the fact in seconds. People love to point it out.
But is cross-chaining really all that bad, or does it just get a bad rap? We asked some of the biggest component manufacturers for their views. You might be surprised at some of the things they said.
Read more: When should I replace my chain?
Shimano
The most efficient chain line occurs when the chain is running in a straight line. This minimises friction. When you run big-big you're pushing an uneven power transmission to the rollers, plates and bushings, especially at the points where the chain line alters (the points where the chain meets the sprocket and the chainring). This uneven load causes extra friction which increases the wear on the chain and longer term leads to less than optimum gear shifting.
For these reasons Shimano recommends avoiding extreme gear positions.
Ben Hillsdon, PR Officer, Shimano Europe
Shimano says you should avoid running the chain in this big-big combination (above).
Campagnolo
Cross-chaining is a practice to be avoided as it is less efficient than a straighter chainline (increased friction, less free motion of links etc).
We all might find ourselves cross-chaining during the heat of the battle during a race. However, we shouldn't make a habit out of it as there is generally a similar metric development gearing position available on a larger/smaller chainring.
Extreme chain crossing can add wear and tear on chainring and cassette teeth as the severe angle of the chain brings the external or internal part of the chain in direct contact with chainring/cassette teeth as opposed to a straight chainline which keeps friction to a minimum and limits contact to the rollers located on the axles of each chainlink.
Joshua Riddle, Press Manager, Campagnolo
Read our guide to understanding gears.
SRAM
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. The same applies to pro road racers. They'll stay on the big ring as long as possible.
There are very good reasons to stay on the big chainring, even as far as the big sprocket:
• Chain management on rough terrain.
• Access to tallest gears without have to shift in front.
• Front shifts are slower than rear and much harder on the chain.
So we would encourage your readers to ride big-big if they like, as long as they don’t experience chain rasp on the front derailleur cage. SRAM 2x11 drivetrains, specifically the Yaw front derailleurs, are designed to accommodate this.
Very little efficiency is lost when cross-chaining. 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. Better chain management and easier access to tall gears certainly outweigh any efficiency loss.
A few words on efficiency measurements. There are enormous differences between the efficiency measured on a loaded drivetrain and an unloaded drivetrain (what your hand feels when spinning the crank on a bike in a workstand). The sluggishness that cross chaining sometimes appears to cause on a bike in the stand disappears when the drivetrain is under load. It’s analogous to lubes in loaded and unloaded mechanical systems. Light oil generally feels better than heavy grease when a system is worked by hand, but when the system is loaded the heavier lube will be more efficient.
Similarly, cross-chaining is not a concern for premature component wear unless of course your chain is wearing through your front derailleur.
JP McCarthy, Road Product Manager, SRAM
Check out our beginner's guide to groupsets here.
FSA
In the last decade cross-chaining has become increasingly common with many people running the chain in the big chainring and big sprocket, especially with the advent of electronics which is much more permissive regarding cross-chaining.
This means that today's chains are subjected to much higher stresses than in the past. That’s why we decided to invest in the development of much stronger chains.
We have a stable supply of raw materials allowing us always to offer a product with a very high level of reliability and performance.
Here at FSA we understand well the importance of cross-chaining. Our latest introduction in this field is the 48/32 Adventure chainset. This is a new super compact standard that allows combination like 48/21 – 48/18. It’s a possible solution to avoid crossing because the chain works more linearly.
We will have this new range of chainsets available in 2017, from the carbon SL-K to our entry level Vero Pro.
Maurizio Bellin, General Manager, FSA
There's a range of views from the big brands, then; what do you think? Is cross-chaining perfectly acceptable? Or do you avoid it because of greater inefficiency and component wear and a higher chance of dropping your chain? Let us know your thoughts and experiences.
Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.
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145 comments
Some people ride bikes.
Some of those people have perfectly efficient bikes, have perfectly efficient riding positions and styles, have the perfect power/weight ratio for their height, have planed their heads into cone shapes, shave their legs every hour and ride in the nude. These people only ever ride downhill with a tailwind and never EVER crosschain because it is inefficient, except they can't reasonably demonstrate this last point.
Some people's components are protected from the accumulation of in-ride road shit via the power of positive thinking. They take their components off after every ride, bathe them in unicorn milk, and tuck them up in bed with a bedtime story, then re-lube them in the morning with dodo feather oil because it increases their life, but they can't reasonably demonstrate this last point.
Then there's the 'just ride/ignoramus' group. Their carefree attitude makes them more attractive, and all that inefficient riding with bad components means that they do three times the work, so they are all Brad-Pitt-in-Fight-Club ripped. They invest all the spare time they have from not fretting about efficiency or component life in getting 'action', but they can't reasonably demonstrate this last point.
Do what makes you happy (or, if you're one of the joyless drones from the first two groups, enables your 'simulate happiness' program to be run).
I got the transmitter for the di2 the other day, which does exactly this, only vastly more expensively. So far all I've used it for is punishing myself by not allowing myself to use 34x32 for anything, otherwise I won't feel the benefit on a big hill. Like not wearing your jumper indoors.
Not wrong, I'm always seeing people riding in small-small on the way to work. Usually cheap bikes, Sora etc, too lazy or ignorant to change gears I think, once they've gone all the way down with spring assistance front and back.
I didn't realise anyone did it deliberately! I'll watch more closely.
Maybe the older companies aren't only trying to sell you more stuff when chains/sprockets/chainrings run out. Maybe they feel some responsibility towards educating riders rather than just taking their money.
How does this article, updated
by Mat Brett March 24 2017
differer from the orginal one published 3 months ago?
"That's why I stopped to 8 gears, and would never use less than 2 front chainring. It also means my chain works on most non-pro bikes and any shops stocks it.
Sometimes when you have perfection, you look for any reason to run away for it just because you want "innovation", when in fact you are going backward."
.... and you're still afraid of sailing off the edge of the flat world, right?
i fitted a sram groupset last year and i have to admit that of all of its features i was most skeptical of the yaw function and was prepared to dismiss it as a gimmick.
I've subsequently done about 4000km (mostly in nice weather) on the same chain with no strong tendency to avoid small-small or big-big and have occasionally appreciated the flexibilty to hold a gear, rather than worry about needing to change rings. I generally use the straightest chainline i can, but i have sometimes been sitting in the same gear for a long time before realising its fully crosschained.
I get less than half that distance out a chain on a winter bike which gets coated grit and muck, so i'd be inclined to think that the dominant factor in chain wear is drivetrain cleanliness, with any acceleration of wear due to crosschaining being relatively small in comparison.
From the greasy end of things..... we mechanics eliminate as much rub and noise as possible and sometimes there is none at all at the extremities...
when they leave the workshop.... how you ride is your call....
It has March 24 2017 on the top. Obviously.
That's about it, really
repeated article
A couple of things that have yet to be mentioned;
Firstly, as I am naturally a 'spinner' (have a high cadence) I very rarely need the large ring on my compact double UNLESS I am pedalling over 25mph! Yes, we are all different individuals and anything below 85rpm feels such hardwork to me.
Finally, using the large ring might be lower friction-wise, but what about the actual force needed on the pedals? in my mind the smaller ring needs lesss force due to leverage principles (e.g. when using a wheelbarrow for example, when the weight is closer to the wheel (bottom bracket/chain tension) and the handles are further in distance from this point (crank arm/pedal) it is easier to lift. So for the same load, the small ring generates more torque and it then follows that for the same gear inches it requires less force on the pedals, how much does the greater friction reduce this advantage? also the momentum of the cranks and the mass of my legs spinning at high revs provides a sort of flywheel, making any change in terrain easier to float over. Combined with smaller gaps between the next gears in either direction I find this much more comfortable, but each to their own!
I'm with Campag/ Shimano mechanics on this - don't do it. Have some mecahnical sympathy!!
I think some of the practice stems from a reluctance to shift the front rings, particularly when you need it to happen very quickly. I gather this is less of an issue with electronic, though that potentially encourages more wear simply because it will perform with extreme chainlines and shifting under load.
On my good bike I currently run 10s Campag 52/39 and the 13t gap between them, being relatively small, allows for a very fast, smooth and trouble-free shift at the front. Together with being able to instantly jump up or dump 3/5 cogs respectively at the back, plus a short cage carbon RD, means the whole thing is over very quickly and without drama.
Those running compacts, and/or big tooth differences at front/ rear, with groupsets from the other manufacturers might be more worried about losing rhythm, dropping a chain etc, which is less of an issue with my current set up.
Pros do it all the time. Not a big deal.
my own 2cts.. on sram big-big is a lil nicer due to yaw derailleur, though it still use the chain faster than not crossing thats for sure.. but its really not that big of a deal. worse care you'll change the chain 1 week earlier? it also tend to not be all that bad on my cassette since its the big ring its stronger and takes less load anyway.
Back to Jerome's comment, when cross chained the transverse component of the force applied to the rear cog by the chain is lost to friction and heat. If you were in big/big then this loss could be roughly 4cms/35cms or roughly 10%, its simple physics and i think is covered in the bicycle science publications pretty comprehensively ( where they then argue hub gears arent so bad compared to a cross chained derailleur setup)
What would be really useful is a magazine to do some scientific tests using chainset and hub powermeters to measure the differences in various gear combinations.
The manufacturors will never admit to to 10% worst case losses because it makes their products look bad. Compacts were introduced to save money over triple setups but are really really bad when it comes to befinners cross chaining and snapping chains and dropouts.
If it's so comprehensively covered, why have we got to 107 posts without someone linking to one such killer study?
(my own disclosure:- I think it makes bugger-all difference to overall efficiency and I can't be arsed Googling for a link to a study that would kill my argument)
Real world 1 - Tech heads 0
Gotta love the SRAM guys....
For any given gear ratio (which actually is a leverage ratio from crank end to effective wheel diameter) there is no difference in the pressure required on the pedal to go at a given speed. regardless of whether you're in the big ring or little ring.
Click bait.
Cross chaining, qu'est que c'est la? Oh, hang on, a very old person is just whispering something in my ear... Ahhh, right, got it.
Only one possible response really - google the phrase '21st century', you'll be amazed.
How often is this article gonna get recycled?
The cassette sprockets with fewer teeth will wear out faster so you might have to change your cassette more frequently than if you shifted to the big ring and used bigger sprockets.
Assuming you have a compact (you didn't say), you could consider putting on a bigger inner-ring to give yourself a more usable range of sprockets at the rear for commuting, or a road double chainset.
How bad cross-chaining is depends on the load. If I'm riding up a mountain on my touring bike then the noise from even middle front to big rear is not encouraging and will wear out parts of the drivetrain prematurely. Without the load on the flat that ratio is fine.
Also with an MTB chainline, I found that after some months commuting, accelerating hard away from standstill middle front to big rear weakened and ultimately snapped the chain because the sideways force pushed the plates off the pins.
Once more, at least.
It's a bit like when women tell people they're 29....
It must be a slow news day in the cycling world to bring this one up again.
i guess Shimano’s answer would be REALLY don’t do small-small. The latest di2 iterations do not allow you to do it. In fact it’s a bit of a con to say 8050/9150 is 22 gears, they are only 19
i guess Shimano’s answer would be REALLY don’t do small-small. The latest di2 iterations do not allow you to do it. In fact it’s a bit of a con to say 8050/9150 is 22 gears, they are only 19
[/quote]
Telling also that SRAM has always called their 11 x 2 "True 22".
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 .
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