Living in Tassie, rode 1×9 with 36 all over Oz and some of UK. Currently not in the shape to do it, new setup is 28/39 so should be good. I’m also better at lower cadence which leads me to run a slightly bigger front ring anyway so 2×10 was the default choice.
Got a 4 day race in January with some cruisy stages so I will appreciate the choice of gears then.
I still have a heckler with 1×9 and 160mm 55’s for some gravity stuff and a DH bike will replace that eventually. This was a conscious decision to go for a Trail/AM bike not an AM/More bike.
The deal is a private conversation between me and the man in the shop 😉