You are reading a single comment by @Tijs and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
Tijs
User error. There's no way any competent cyclist would ever be trying to shift to the granny ring until they're already on at least the third largest sprocket. You want the chain to be already pointing in the direction of the front shift before you shift, i.e. on a sprocket which is inboard of the engaged chainring for a downshift or outboard of the engaged chainring for an upshift. That way, the tendency for the chain to straighten up is helping the shift, not fighting it.
The actual cause of this being a thing which can happen at all is that Shimano spaced the rings out far enough to allow incompetent gear selections without the chain fouling the larger rings. If they put the inner ring close enough to the middle to avoid leaving a big enough gap for the chain to fall into, the chain would rub on the middle ring when you engage the inner ring and the smallest sprocket, on a 135mm hub with the shortest chainstays specified in the manual. They have to make things idiot proof, and this is why we can't have nice things.