Originally Posted by
FBinNY
Sorry, but no.
Cross chaining, or any chainring issue could cause skipping in the rear. The chain is fed onto cassette by the jockey wheel and anything forward of the RD wouldn't change that. (assuming that the RD is properly set up)
However, it's a direct path from the top of the cog to the top of the chain ring aka the main pathway of the force being transmitted from front to back.
Let's hear from the OP.
EDIT- IF my assertion is true, it would tend to point to OTHER misalignment issues. Just that if skipping on the smallest cogs only, it's just pushed the misalignment to the point that NOTICEABLE problems happen. There may already be chain rub etc. issues that the OP doesn't realize that would be a red flag to us in addition to a simple visual inspection. It's not difficult to stand behind the bike and visually line up the path of the chain through the RDER to ascertain it lines up properly with the cog above it.