Not to beat a dead horse but ...
Originally Posted by
Kapusta
Why would chain-line necessarily tell you anything? I could easily shift into my big big combo on my old 3x9 (not that I did so intentionally very often).
You can hear it. Somehow in something like 25 years and many many 10s of Ks I've yet to cross chain unintentionally.
Not that I've ever generally recommended short-chaining. Overall it's a terrible idea. But if you have a special need (like towing a sailboat) and you know the limits and pay attention to what you're doing it's a feasible solution. That's what I mean by we make too big a deal of it sometimes. And seriously, who cross chains a triple? The clatter is bad enough on a double.