I started off in the 90’s with 18, then 21…moved to 27, then 30…down to 20 and now thinking about 10 or 11.

What is the most optimal mountainbike gearing these days…as im lost?

What is the most optimal mountainbike gearing these days?

Well, you see, that all depends on your wheel size sir.

In torn between 17 and 23

depends on the terrain but having more gears is not necessarily better IMHO – I include 10 speed in that assessment

Its about quality not quantity…

Having said that I reckon its got to be 42.

1×10 would be spot on for a do it all bike I reckon. Saying that, at the minute my mtbs are 1×9 and singlespeed..

I’ll get this one in before the beardies

1

Whatever it is you get with no front mech, be that 9, 10 or 11. Or 15 by the end of 2015. Probably.

Having said that, one is quite nice.

No matter how many gears you have (or wheel size) there will be someone out there on a rigid single speed 26er who will be significantly faster.

I’m still happy running 1×8 and 1×9 on my bikes. Used with either 34-36-38t ring upfront depending where I’m riding.

I personally think 1x?? is the way forward. Far simpler, lighter, and better performing out on the trail IMO.

Of the 5 bikes in my garage one is running 2×10 (best road bike) 3 are running 9 speed ( 1 roadie and 2 mtb of which one is 2×9 and one 3×9) and a single speed.

Having ridden with a friend whose bike is 2×10 i am yet to be convinced of any need to change, he agrees but it’s what the bike came with.

I have also run a mtb with a 1×9 set up, that also was fine for me.

Guess i’ll be sticking with 9 speed for a while.

I personally think 1x?? is the way forward. Far simpler, lighter, and better performing out on the trail IMO.

I’ve only just got round to 2×10 speed (29er) and on the first ride out the L.H shifter packed up. Running 32 11-34 gave me no bother up some big(ish) hills at the weekend so I’m going to leave it as it is for a few weeks and see how I get on

I went from 3×9 to 2×9 as i didn’t use the lowest or highest ratios. Set up is 26/36 – 11/34. Road bike is 2×8 39/50 13/23.

Rode a couple 1 x 11 bikes today on a Demo Day and for me I suspect it would be fine for 90 – 95% of my riding, nice and quite good spread of gears. Had not ridden for a few weeks either and still managed a couple of climbs 🙂

Even of you have 3 x 11 = 33 gears, you can only use 1 so ditch all that mumbo jumbo and just fit The One.

Personally I think 1×10/11 is perfect when I’m fit. When I’m not I like having a granny ring bailout option so both my off road bikes are 2×10.

I could manage 1×10, but I have 2×10 and I like it. 1xsomething would be nice for me, but the cost to achieve ratios suitable for me means I won’t be doing it soon.

I ride 3×9 around the peak district. There’s some tough off road climbs which I like to try and clear. There are also linking road sections that I like to cover at a reasonable lick.

I’ve recently been limiting myself on gear selection to see if I could get away with 1×11.

I think I probably could, just. However, I really don’t have any problems with a triple so I don’t see any reason to change it.

Plus, with my current set up, I can actually afford to replace the cassette when it’s worn out. Not so with 11 speed.

1 gear on the bike and 10 gears in the legs.

1×10 works well but not as well as 2×9… I have both, on bikes that it suits, and there’s no chance I’d switch the 2×9 bike to 1×10… Some of the riding it does just would not suit it.

22 on the road bike 27 on the mtb. I use them all from time to time. How I ride I’ve never had a problem with front mechs, so I don’t see a point in limiting my options, or having wide spaces between gears. I don’t think there’s a “right” just what works for you.

i run 1×10, but just the granny.

have to back off on the tarmac but off road i have all the gears i need.

ran it at big dog – perfect.

am i the only one doing this

DC

n.b.very kind on the knees

I quite like 2x because you can suddenly knock down quite a big ratio step in a hurry (and with not much of a crank revolution) and put some torque in to clear unseen steps or features. With the front shifter, dropping the chain down from a bigger outer ring to a smaller one pretty quickly gives you enough chain wrap to be able to lean of the pedals pretty hard and soon. Trying to the do the same at the back, where changing down means a smaller toothed cog is exchanged for a bigger toothed one gives the opposite effect.

I’ve been running 1×10 on my bike for a while now, but just about to go back to 2×10 to see if I prefer it. I’m not as fit as I’d like to think I am and 34-36 kills me up a lot of steep hills.

11 is the future for my mtb.

What is the most optimal mountainbike gearing these days?

Well, you see, that all depends on your wheel size sir.

And where you ride.

1×10 is spot on for me. Less faff.

3 x 9 and I use the full range.

I won’t be changing any time soon as I see no credible reason to

I’m running 1×9 at the moment and ride mostly in the peaks and trail centres. If i’m honest I do miss the bail out option on some of the peak climbs but love the simplicity and lack of noise too much to ever go back to a front mech setup.

TheArtistFormerlyKnownAsSTR – Member

3 x 9 and I use the full range.

I won’t be changing any time soon as I see no credible reason to

This.

I like to try and ride the ups, even if it’s slower than walking.
And I like to go as fast as possible on the downs, ‘cos it makes me happy. 🙂

And it’s bloody steep round here.

1 x 10 works grand for me. Sometimes I’d like a wider range, so one of those replacement cassette things is on my radar. I wish Mr Shimano would just make a wide range 10 speed cassette/mech combo.

I really can’t get my head round the current trend to buck the front mech.

OK, you might lose a pound and you might not lose your chain. It’s not really a deal breaker for me. I don’t get hung up on weight and I maybe lose the chain onto the granny once every other ride (easily recovered) and maybe off altogether once every dozen rides. Meh! Next rear mech will have a clutch anyway.

14 all nicely contained away from mud inside the rear hub , makes for a perfct winter bike for the last 7 years

But 1×11 looks good on paper with 9-42 rear but yet to ride one

1 or 1×6 if it’s too hilly. I can swap it in about 15 mins.

TheArtistFormerlyKnownAsSTR – Member

I really can’t get my head round the current trend to buck the front mech.

it’s one of those things that doesn’t really make that much sense on paper, bit like singlespeeding, it only works if you make the limitations into plus points. Though, I do love the quiet, and perfect chain control (I don’t lose the chain often on the 2×9 but when I do it’s almost always at a bad time, it seems to know when I’m pedalling into a jump…)

One 3 x 9 and two 3 x 10’s here, I don’t actually care about simplifying my drivetrain, I like a triple 🙂

I’ve got 2×10 on my MTB, 2×10 on my CX and 2×10 on my Roadie, can’t see the point of ditching the front mech on the MTB as I rather like riding up big ass hills.

As for the other two, they came like that so they’ll be staying like that

3×11, for wallrides……straight up

I was sceptical…but I now quite like the 2 x 10 on my new 29er…..BUT I had to swap the 24 for a 22 to stop my knees blowing up on really steep climbs….which has compromised an easy ascent up from granny to top