Looking to put myself a winter road bike together fairly cheaply ASAP. Have tried 1x before with limited success, I’m sure it was mainly down to not getting on with the frame I had it fitted to, and the lowly 42T ring meaning I span out all too soon at the top end that I didn’t get on with it so well. Anyway…

Trying to do this on a fairly strict budget and re-use as much kit as I’ve got lying around as possible… Have the following…

-Bars/Stem/Seatpost/Saddle
-Brakes
-Cranks
-46T SRAM Narrow/Wide 110BCD chainring (randomly given this one, seems it may finally be able to be useful!)
-Some half decent 10spd wheels (crucially 11spd road cassettes won’t fit on the freehub, but due to Shimano being incredibly odd, 11spd MTB cassettes will fit!)
-An 11-40 11spd XT M8000 cassette with almost zero mileage.
-SRAM X1 11spd Derailleur (same pull ratio as road, as long as I use an inline barrel adjuster will be fine)
-10spd Shimano 105 levers
-10spd SRAM Rival levers

All I need is…

-Frame & Fork (probably Kinesis T3)
-Shift/Brake levers (11spd) or…
-Front/rear derailleurs (10spd)
-10spd cassette

So as you can see, it makes economical sense to buy some SRAM Rival 1x levers and crack on (especially if I sell the 10spd levers I’ve got spare)…

Having done the sums, 11-40 gives me 363% range, which to me is ample on a road bike. My Colnago is running 36/52 and 12-30 which gives me 361% so effectively the same overall ratios, the 46/40 proposed bottom gear coming in at 1.15:1 instead of 1.2:1 (which would barely be noticable, but slightly lower anyway). Would probably run 28’s on winter bike which would bring the gearing back to almost the same anyway.

Crucially, the 11-40 Shimano XT cassette actually has slightly closer spaced ratios in the middle of the block (my other issue with the 11-36 SRAM cassette was the 19-22 shift giving a 16% jump right in the middle of the block), but slightly wider spaced ratios at the etxremes (which I’m less bothered about). I know many new 1x road/gravel/CX bikes are coming with 10-42 SRAM XD drive cassettes, I’ve had a go on them and whilst these ratios work fine offroad, there’s a few sizeable gaps in the block which you really notice on the road, besides, I don’t need 420% range on a road bike, and if I was going to the expense of new wheels and a new XD drive cassette as well as a frame, I may as well just flog my box of bits and buy a new bike.

So… Do it? Or just buy some 10spd derailleurs, cassette and chainrings and stick with 2×10?

Do it!
Weirdly as a firm advocate of 2x on my 29er as I need all the range and more.
For most of my UK road riding, I just find 2x a pita as my cruising speed coincides more or less with the gears you swap rings. I’m personally well up for 1x on my next winter bike.

My commuter/winter bike is 1×10, 42T chainring with an 11-36 cassette, fine for most of the stuff I’m likely to ride in winter in the southern Dales. I’m not going to be heading up Park Rash or Fleet Moss for example.

I went 42T for the chainring as that was exactly in the middle of the 2x chainrings I had previously and there was an equal lack of wear at either end of the cassette.

It’s fine. Running 38×11/23 for road and that’s good enough for the Surrey Hills. I like a good spinning session, but am happy coasting when it gets too fast. Absolute Black NW 38T on a 130 BCD carbon SRAM red crank with Gevenalle shifter and Tektro mini-Vs. Frame is a Charge Freezer Ti.

I also have another winter bike with guards that doesn’t go to the muddy stuff for racing.

And I also have a 1×1 (42×14 or 79″), with guards as well. Try it 😉

The 1×10 has a higher top gear than the fixed, so I’m winning.

I’m running 1x on my winter road bike. It was the boys I had so went with it.

Sram 10-42 cassette with Shimano levers. Using a linderets tanpan to modify cable pull. Working spot on so far.

I like to keep a high cadence and have used chainrings between 38 and 44 so far. I wouldn’t want to go higher than that personally.

I rode my cross bike a fair bit on the road earlier this year training and then doing the Fred Whitton, with a 38 by 11-34 ten speed. Thought it was basically fine but the lack of top end was v noticeable and poor on long rolling descents.
The gears you’re talking about sound like they’d go a long way to resolve this and I’ll prob change myself to something similar next year – 46T with a big 11speed cassette sounds great to me.

And I also have a 1×1 (42×14 or 79″), with guards as well. Try it

NO CHANCE! I like my knees way too much. Besides, I struggle getting up some hills as it is…

My commuter/winter bike is 1×10, 42T chainring with an 11-36 cassette, fine for most of the stuff I’m likely to ride in winter in the southern Dales. I’m not going to be heading up Park Rash or Fleet Moss for example.

That’s the thing, I found this setup OK at the bottom end (42/36 bottom gear) but span out all too often at the top. Also the particular (SRAM) cassette I was using had an annoying 19-22 jump in it which gave a 16% jump when all the other jumps were 14% or less. I know… I’m being picky, but there we go!

Have worked out on the 11-40 XT cassette, all the first 9 ratios are spaced 14% apart or less which is more than acceptable, and only the 15-13-11 at the top end are wider spaced, which would be annoying on a crit race bike for sure, but on a winter bike the only times I’ll be getting above the 15T I suspect the terrain will be pointing downwards so I’ll be less bothered by the gaps at this end.

Hmmmm… Only fly in the ointment now is a 5 week wait for the Kinesis T3 frames to come back into stock in a 54cm! Every other size in stock, but no 54’s annoyingly! Any other similar frames worth of consideration?

I think it would be a gappy mess and it’d annoy the life out of me. Saying that I get annoyed at the gaps in the bottom end of and 11-28 10s cassette.

You won’t know until you try it though!

You could get a 4s although they’re not cheap, maybe a ribble audax (crap tyre clearance but cheap) or a genesis equilibrium (“comfortable” geometry and steel is heavy if that bothers you)?

Weirdly as a firm advocate of 2x on my 29er as I need all the range and more.

That’s the thing, on my 24lb carbon 29er HT, I find 10-42 11spd more than enough range with a 30T ring. On my full sus, which is 32lb, I found with 11spd I really wanted a lower gear quite often, and I could spin out 30/10 off road on occasion (160mm of travel allowing me to hit the terrain harder than a carbon HT would). Went to Eagle on that, the 500% range proving more than enough for every occasion.

On a fairly lightweight road bike though. Not sure I’ve ever felt the need for any more range than I’ve got currently.

I rode my cross bike a fair bit on the road earlier this year training and then doing the Fred Whitton, with a 38 by 11-34 ten speed.

Had a cross bike, only used it on the road very occasionally. Found the 10-42 cassette very “gappy” and combined with the 36T ring up front (which was ace offroad!) I found it pretty rubbish on road. I guess everything is a compromise!

I think it would be a gappy mess and it’d annoy the life out of me. Saying that I get annoyed at the gaps in the bottom end of and 11-28 10s cassette.

I hear you, and I’ve done the maths. I too don’t like the 11-28 10spd cassettes, the 24-28 jump is that bit bigger than ideal at 17%. However, the first 9 cogs on the 11-40 are all within 14% so “acceptable” IMO.

You could get a 4s although they’re not cheap

Quite… Cheap being the operative word, and the 4S would kinda be wasted as I don’t need it to take discs. Also I’m really not a fan of Kinesis’ internal gear routing (which the T3 doesn’t have), there’s some rather sharp bends where the cables enter the frame which hampers shifting performance IMO.

maybe a ribble audax (crap tyre clearance but cheap)

Gotta be able to take 28’s so outta the question. That and they’re very short in the head tube which doesn’t suit me too well.

or a genesis equilibrium

Would rather save a lb or so with ally and get some comfort from the tyres to be fair. Nice steel bikes are a joy to ride, cheaper steel IMO is still more “comfy” than ally in general, but the weight deficit doesn’t really make up for it. Besides I’ve already got a carbon 27.2 post I can sling on whatever I get, Ti railed saddle and those 28mm tyres etc.

-10spd Shimano 105 levers
-10spd SRAM Rival levers

Huh?

42T superstar narrow/wide and bottom 8 of a 9 speed 11-34 cassette (125mm hub)

It’s good for commuting, relaxed road riding and audax. For club rides (if I ever did any of them) rides and loaded touring I’d want higher and lower.

built up that way for max cheapness – has the bits in the box. It was a close run thing whether to do this or set it up SS, so I couldn’t claim to be fussy about gaps in the gearing

Nice steel bikes are a joy to ride, cheaper steel IMO is still more “comfy” than ally in general, but the weight deficit doesn’t really make up for it. Besides I’ve already got a carbon 27.2 post I can sling on whatever I get, Ti railed saddle and those 28mm tyres etc.

spectacularly comfy steel here, with the 28s and the carbon post and the zertz insert and the cushy saddle and the extra thick cork tape. just missing the ti rails! 😀 and 32s might be coming when these wear thin.

Huh?

I’ve managed to amass 2 sets of fully working 10spd levers, 105 5700 and SRAM Rival. So could choose from either of them, or sell both and go 11spd…

It’s good for commuting, relaxed road riding and audax. For club rides (if I ever did any of them) rides and loaded touring I’d want higher and lower.

That’s the thing. Most of my riding is club rides, hence even through winter I want something relatively light and quick. I’m not really commuting or spending long solo hours on it, it’ll be used for similar kinds of rides as my Colnago would be but slightly slower due to weather and conditions and with guards fitted.

If I was doing club rides, I’d take the rack off, dremel out the sprocket carrier to get the 9th speed on there, and maybe go up to 44 or 46.

Did a slowish 200K audax on this one, and a 20mph average Ride 100 on a 48T 11-34. Probably didn’t need all 48 up front.

gaps between the gears might be more of an issue if you’re tapping out the miles at pace in a group, I don’t know. Depends on the group and your legs’ place in them, I guess!

That’s the thing. Most of my riding is club rides, hence even through winter I want something relatively light and quick.

How fast are the club rides? I averaged 35 km/hr on last night’s club run on my fixed wheel. I’d be about the same on my 1×10. That 79″ gear was careully chosen precisely for those rides. Anything sub-10 kg is light enough for winter. Just keep the rear fairly tight at the back and expect some harder efforts on the climbs. 38×23 isn’t the best climbing gear, but if I had 11 speed, 38×25 wouldn’t be so bad. It’s not supposed to be easy 😉

And he’s not wrong about a decent steel frame. The fixed is steel, and the 1×10 is Ti (which is really just a lighter steel).

A lot depends on your attitude to gappy gears or your tendency to honk or freewheel when gears run out. A single chain ring is, to me, fine for CX as the course I ride rarely need the granny or running is faster. On the road I like a close range. Happy to freewheel if I spin out but twiddling away up hill doesn’t appeal. I find that a 2t jump is more than enough so a cassette to cope with both extremities of gear is way to gappy. I’ll be honest and say I suspect this may be based on TTing as a teenager where a straight through 13-17 block was fine with a 42/52 chainset. I also don’t ride a full susser so honking on hill off road is fine.
Personal tendencies above all else I say.

How fast are the club rides? I averaged 35 km/hr on last night’s club run on my fixed wheel.

Not as fast as yours thankfully! But then I’m not at your level, and though it’s not mountainous round here, it’s not exactly flat. Typically 19-20mph avg in summer, slows down to 17-18 through winter. Tend to only be 30-40 miles though, maybe do 50 on occasion if I take the long way home after.

Anything sub-10 kg is light enough for winter.

Yes but don’t forget just how much weight guards, lights, pump etc. (all the stuff you leave on your winter bike that you don’t need or would shove in your pocket in the summer) add to a bike. My old Whyte Dorset was just on 10kg out the box, 10.4kg with pedals and a cage. Add guards, a light, a pump, tiny saddlebag with a tube and a patch kit in and it was 11.8kg for crying out loud!!!

Reckon with the kit I’ve got, I should be looking at 8.5-9kg on a T3 frame or similar, so add guards and a light and it should still be under 10 hopefully.

Did a slowish 200K audax on this one, and a 20mph average Ride 100 on a 48T 11-34. Probably didn’t need all 48 up front.

Respect, 5hrs for Ride London is a good time on anything. I turned myself inside out trying to hang with some fast boys (and my ex GF) last year (didn’t do it this), used all 22 gears (span out 52/11 on more than one occasion!) in anger, and god only knows how managed a 4hr37 time at 21.6 avg! That was on a 7kg carbon wonderbike with aero wheels etc. though. I doubt had I been on your bike I’d have been anywhere near as fast!

gaps between the gears might be more of an issue if you’re tapping out the miles at pace in a group, I don’t know. Depends on the group and your legs’ place in them, I guess!

I think you’re quite right, and been trying to asses the gears I’m usually in in a group versus those I’m usually in on my own. For sure, a 1x setup won’t be much cop if the group is tapping out a consistent 25mph+ pace on the flat, but though that happens regularly in the summer, it’s less likely through winter. I run quite a high cadence normally, tend to average 94-95 on a ride, which means I’m typically spinning 100rpm on the flat. Normally on my summer bike I’ll be sat in the 52 and mostly using the 19 and 17 cogs on the back in a group (so right in the meat of the cassette), which I reckon would put me on 17 and 15 cogs on the back with a 46T ring instead. Any solo time is usually a gear or so lower on the back, which wouldn’t be an issue at all on 1x as this is nearer the middle of the cassette.

And he’s not wrong about a decent steel frame. The fixed is steel, and the 1×10 is Ti (which is really just a lighter steel).

I had a Ritchey Road Logic last year, which I loved. Unfortunately the geometry didn’t love me, as it was far too low at the front for my long legged, inflexible shape! Would love one with a 25mm longer head tube, was perhaps the only steel frame I’ve ridden (on road) so far that was easily worth the 1kg weight penalty against top end carbon frames!

My main road bike runs 1×11 with a 42t up front and a 10/42 cassette. Sure there’s some gaps between the gears but in all honesty I never even notice anymore.
I’ve had no issues keeping up with mates on club rides and it’s managed perfectly well in The Alps as well. The only time I missed having some closer ratios was on the third climb of Ventoux when we did the Cinglés ride a couple of months back but in all honesty I would have found fault with any bike at that point!

I’m planning on building up a new commuter bike and after a bit of indecision I think that’s going to be 1×11 agsin as well as it works so well for me.

Top end, bottom end, close ratios : pick 2.

did some sums

50 with 11 / 42 cassette would give slightly wider range than my current 50/34 with 11-28

would that be ‘orrible on road??!!??

Dunno but you’ll need a lot of chain. I’d ask yourself if you really need that top gear or if you could use a closer spaced block and a smaller ring. If you can’t live without that whole range then maybe just stick to a double

Fwiw I have a 38t with 11-32 but I don’t do group rides so the need to hammer along for a sustained period isn’t a requirement. When it’s time to replace bits I’ll probably go to a 11-34 or 36 and 40t but I think it would start getting a bit gappy with a really wide cassette

I ran my old commuter 1×10 with a 38T and a 11-32 cassette and it was great, really liked the simplicity. My new one is running Claris 2×8 and while it has slightly better range the gaps in the block are more annoying so it’ll be going 1x when it all wears out. But then I hate front mechs with a passion and I don’t do group road rides or racing where matching other people’s speed at a certain cadence is useful so going 1x makes sense to me.

I’m also not fast on the road so this:

For most of my UK road riding, I just find 2x a pita as my cruising speed coincides more or less with the gears you swap rings.

really annoys me.