Even in the day when "10 speeds" reigned, that was generally considered cross-chaining and one would select patterns that did not rely on the small-small/large-large combination whether half-step or conventional gearing was used.
Some of us were never quite sanguine about them being called 10 speeds because they were actually 8 speeds. However, I knew quite a few folks that owned bike boom 10 speeds and they were bound and determined to use all of them. It was the advent of 12 speed bikes (6 cogs) that actually brought us 10 speed bikes.
Charlie Young
Honey Brook, PA
> Greg wrote ...
>
> (P.S.): Never use the big-big or small-small combination, please!!!
>
> _______________________________________________
>
>
> Greg, not even with a 10 speed (i.e. 5 in the rear and 2 in the front)?
How
> would you explain the half-step patterns that were common back in the old
> days? Were they "beyond the pale," but only we know it now?
>
> Ken Freeman
> Ann Arbor, MI