Originally Posted by
alexk_il
Then again I see plenty of videos on youtube where higher end drive systems often have chain rubs in small-to-small or large-to-large position. So how bad is the cross-chaining? Is anyone else is doing it without worrying too much?
There can be some extra wear, mostly in the chainrings with the softer aluminum vs. steel cogs. It depends on your setup, weight, leg strength, how well you keep the chain lubed, short chainstays are worse than longer and some setups will be noisy from chain rub, etc. I do big/big often when riding through areas of frequent stopping to avoid double shifting constantly when pulling out from stops. I weigh around 210lbs and it does put some extra wear on the big chainring but have not noticed any on my cassettes largest cog at 25t or chain. I also don't spend much time in the big/big as I'll shift to another gear as soon as possible. Big/big is a luxury that is worth the small extra cost of wear to me but maybe not in everyones case.