A lot of 29er bikes now seem to run a 1×11 set up. Is this much harder to pedal up steep hills than my beloved 2×9 set up using conventional standard ring and cassette ratios?

I was 2×9 on last two bikes and now have one with 11 and find it no harder. Climbs up steep stuff brilliantly.

Sheldon Brown is your friend in this case

Just plug in current ratios and compare…..

i have problems with my lungs and went xx1 in the summer and have no issues. still doing what i was doing on 3×9. any problems i do get is me not the gears

I have 1 x 10, do I need to chnage my rear axle to fit an 11 speed cassette?

You need a new freehub body to fit a SRAM 11 speed cassette, Shimano XTR will fit on what you have, but is a narrower range.

Primarily depends on the size of your rear cassette. If it goes up to 40, or even 42 teeth, then assuming that you have either 32 or 34 upfront, your granny gear isn’t going to be much lower than what you’d have on a fairly standard 2×9 or even 2×10 set up.

Where you will notice a difference however is on the jumps between gears. Smooth incremental shifting becomes less so when you’re jumping three or four ring sizes in one shift. Essentially you’ve got either 10 or 11 different gear options with the 1×10/11, whereas with a 2×9 you have 18 and 3×9 27. Top and bottom will be pretty much the same (give or take depending on exact configuration), it is the jumps in between that will be much greater.

The effect of this is less smoothness changing between gears and the possibility that you’ll either be spinning out too much or grinding it out too much in the next gear up and you won’t be able to find the happy medium.

That said I run 1×10 and love it!

less faffing about between the front rings trying to get the “perfect” ratio and less thinking about such when on the trails, just one lever and one decision – up or down 🙂

The above is true to an extent, but you’ll only feel the benefit in smaller gaps in ratios if you are changing between front chainrings constantly. In reality who actually does that on an MTB?

BF – if you are running a 36 on your cassette and a 22 up front on a 29er then you are moving forwards 16 inches per pedal stroke.

With a 1×11 the cassette runs a 42 on the cassette and say a 32 up front, again on a 29er, you would then be moving forwards 20 inches per pedal stroke.

So the answer is yes.

If running a 22 front/36 rear then it is 25% harder.

This is a little misleading though.

I always found the old gearing went down too low, making the front want to lift and making every pedal stroke a fight against inertia. many times I failed on techy climbs due to believing I needed the easiest gear.

The ratio that the 1×11 or 1×10 with a cassette expander gives is a great gear. It is much better for techy climbs and just seems to deliver the power better.

I have not walked anything since going over to a single chainring and I have been up some real humdingers…

As for whether 1×11 is worth the extra expense…. not to my mind.

Overall, I love having just the one chainring.

I was on 1×8! 32 front 34 rear. Builds up your stamina and fitness pretty quick, depending on your locale. Just get a 32 or 30 narrow wide (and a chain guide if you don’t have a clutch mech) front on your 9 speed and try it!

Certainly with a 40T extender you don’t notice it.

There’s a lot of duplication or near duplication in a 3×9 or 3×10 set-up so you don’t really have 27 or 30 gears. You’d have to do a lot of double shifting to make use of all the ratios in order.

With a 1x set-up, you just go up or down the block, it’s basically like staying in the middle ring all the time.

OP I’ve asthma, fairly bad at times. I run sram 1×11 and swap between a 32t and a 30t depending on my asthma and temperature, terrain etc.

I don’t notice the jumps between gears and in fact find it easier form un breathing as I’m never caught out in the wrong gear so don’t have to grind it or spin it out.

I’d say go for it.