Originally Posted by HTupolev

"Baulk" doesn't mean "throw", it means "hesitate." When I said it "baulks occasionally under heavy load", I meant that the rider needs to let off tension a bit more in order for the chain to leap off the ring. I'm also comparing this to how the setup manages the shifts between the 52 and 42 rings, which are very snappy and work consistently even under considerable load; the middle-to-small shift comparatively requires gentleness, but it's hardly bad. (And I've never thrown the chain while performing it.)


Compared with setting that crankset up as a double, the inner ring costs somewhere around 50g. On an hour-long climb, that 50g is going to cost somewhere in the ballpark of two seconds at like-for-like wattage. For someone whose gearing is otherwise badly bottomed out, that 2-second penalty is going to pay for itself many many many times over.