I’m currently running 30t chain rings on my 29ers (36t lowest on cassette), which is about the lowest my 53 year old legs can now manage off-road. I’ve picked up a nice 26er frame cheap and would like to build it up with 1×10, and I’m trying to get a similar feeling gear range as my 29er. My guesstimate is that a 34t chainring will give me a similar low gear on a 36 cassette(?)

Does anyone have experience of this 29/26 1x set-up – if so, could you share your thoughts please.

TIA

Personally I couldn’t manage bigger than 32t when I was 1×10 on 26in.

Quite hilly riding here, might’ve managed a 34t for the shorter climbs back down south.

You can work out the ratios, but I’ve ended up on 32- I could make 34 work but i didn’t feel it was a very good tradeoff, I very rarely feel like I need a higher gear than 32-11

Ah, that’s good to know! (Ta). We’re in the Dark Peak, so not proper mountainous, but climbs are tough enough for me – whereabouts are you?

Use Sheldon Brown’s gear calculator both for your existing setup, a 3×10 for the 26″ and a 1×10 for the 26″ then you’ll get a feel for where the range should lie. You could always swap out one of the cogs for an extender – might look a bit odd on a 26″ wheel though!

I’m in Hebden and 32t on a 1×10 is enough for my legs

Rivington is my local riding.

I’m on 32t at the front, AND i have a dinner plate (42t) at the back!

#skinnylegs

I looked at the range of gears I had and which I used then went for a 32. I could probably get away with a 34 but decided to keep a nice easy gear for when I’m tired or lazy.

Thanks for all the feedback. It sounds like a 32t is the way to go – then if
my knackered knee/back/shoulder and weedy legs find it too much I’ll bung one of those 40t cogs into the cassette.

You could do something radical like divide 29 by 26 and multiply it by 30!!!!!!!! 😯

On my old 26er, I ran 1×9 32 for a while, then went to 1×10 32. They both seemed fine, with the extra 36 tooth rear on the 10 speed cassette a bonus.

On the 29er, I started with 32 tooth chainring, and found that a little hard work on long rides with challenging climbs. I switched down to a 28 tooth chainring, and that works fine, only complaint is I am in the 11 tooth small sprocket quite a lot, and tend to wear that side of the cassette out before the other cogs… but then running XT I can replace the 11, 13, and 15 cogs and all is well.

Gear calc says that 32 chainring on a 26er is equivalent to a 29 tooth chainring on a 29er. For narrow wide you can’t get 29 tooth yet (:-) so 28 or 30 is the choice. I may try 30 at some point to see if I can shift a bit more into the middle of the cassette, but that 28-36 combo is just right for winchy stuff when tired (or unfit).

Spinning out isn’t a concern if you are doing longer rides. If you do short sprinty type rides, go for bigger chainrings, but TBH if you are peddling a MTB at >20MPH for any length of time on the flat, give team Sky a phone the next TDF waits 🙂

30t with 11-40t cassette for me but I am a bit unfit fat knacker but prefer to ride uphills than walk as it hurts my knees less. 😆

I ride SS quite a lot, reasonably fit, on my Anthem 30T 11-36 suits me perfect.

See how some (all?) the 30t rings have the thread machined in, so you only need half your chainring bolt. Will a steel bolt into an aluminium chainring lead to misery, or will a bit of anti-seize compound sort it?

They have the thread machined in on the 30t rings to fit a 104 bc because you need a spacer to stop the chain hitting the crank arms and this spacer is usually incorporated in the ring too. Anti seize would be a good idea.

I assumed that was why, cheers.