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Drop the big ring?

BikeGeek

BrewMonkey
Jul 2, 2001
4,573
273
Hershey, PA
I recently bought my first geared bike (Yeti sb66) in 10 years. This thing has miles of chain and I had forgotten how noisy a multi-geared drive-train can be. The bike is a 3x10 with a mix of SRAM x7 and x9 bits. I think I want to drop the big ring off the bike; I'm not using it where I ride and I'd like to take out a lot of the slack in the drive-train.

The rule of thumb in the past was to take your chain around your biggest rings in the front and back without going through the derailleur, then add a link for correct chain sizing. Does that still hold true?
Am I going to need to drop down to a medium cage rear derailleur to work with the 2x10 setup or will the long cage work well enough?
Any chainline issues I should consider? I'd think that it's current line should be good; it seems to run fine all over the cassette from the middle ring and I know better than to cross it from small ring to small cogs.
 

Willy Vanilly

Monkey
Jul 27, 2003
194
0
San Jose
I think your rule of thumb stiff holds true with one caveat, you should check to make sure the suspension doesn't pull on the chain as you cycle through the suspension.

Also, I've run 2 rings in the front with a long cage rear der and it works fine but if you're trying to quiet things up, a mid cage rear der would help to eliminate keep the chain from bouncing around as much (although you'll lose the ability to go back to a 3 ring setup).

Someone correct me if I'm wrong
 
Last edited:

Beef Supreme

Turbo Monkey
Oct 29, 2010
1,434
73
Hiding from the stupid
The rule of thumb in the past was to take your chain around your biggest rings in the front and back without going through the derailleur, then add a link for correct chain sizing. Does that still hold true?
Often not due to the chain growth on some full suspension designs. You will be fine if you let the air out of the shock and use that method at full bottom.
 

Beef Supreme

Turbo Monkey
Oct 29, 2010
1,434
73
Hiding from the stupid
I should also say I've never understood the logic of not running the chain through the derailleur for sizing. Big-big through the derailleur at full bottom. Lop off the extra chain with bolt cutters and reassemble with a quick link.
 

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,031
5,921
borcester rhymes
ooh, i'm late to the party, but remember that some designs don't have full growth at full travel. DW links in particular feature a lot of growth mid travel but little as you get deep. Not sure how the yeti runs, but it may be worth running it though full travel up and down to make sure you're not going to get a pop anywhere.

If you have cash, a nice clutch derailleur will probably quiet things down immensely.
 

BikeGeek

BrewMonkey
Jul 2, 2001
4,573
273
Hershey, PA
ooh, i'm late to the party, but remember that some designs don't have full growth at full travel. DW links in particular feature a lot of growth mid travel but little as you get deep. Not sure how the yeti runs, but it may be worth running it though full travel up and down to make sure you're not going to get a pop anywhere.

If you have cash, a nice clutch derailleur will probably quiet things down immensely.
Thanks. I definitely see the chain tightening and loosening as I move through the travel. The clutch derailleurs are nice, but it will take a lot to convince my wife that I need to spend even more money than I already have. :)

I had the bike out again this weekend and I didn't notice the noise as much. I'm wondering if part of it was just me being used to a near-silent single speed drivetrain. In any case, thanks to everyone for the info.