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Am I thinking of tension in the wrong way?
Probably. Power in a chain drive (and anywhere else) is force×velocity (torque×angular velocity if it's rotating). A big/big drive at a given input angular velocity and torque has higher chain velocity but lower tension than a small/small drive.
On the other hand, I think the comment is still wrong, and most of any gains from big/big drives on dérailleur bikes comes from spending more time in gears with less lateral offset.
gbj_tester
@boredom
I was watching a reel on Instagram about someone using a 68t chainring in a TT. One of the comments said "the gain comes from a lower chain tension for a given ratio."
If someone is doing 500w on a 68-17t for 105" gear, that'd mean there'd be the same tension on the chain if they were using a 56-14 for the same effective gear right? Like it's doing 500w worth of pulling to the rear cog on the cassette to turn it. Chain length wouldn't come into it because they'd be cut to the correct length in guessing.
Is the comment wrong? Googling isn't getting me the right thing and I'm not sure how to word it, and I know there's people smarter than me here. Am I thinking of tension in the wrong way?