What I find curious is people fitting range expanders (with all the attendant issues of gap in range,cost, weight and potentially dodgy shifting) only to cancel out the benefits at the low end of the range by running large NW chainrings. A 30T ring on 36 is exactly the same gear as 35T ring on a 42 (yes I know you can’t get an uneven numbered NW ring!).
Personally I run 30T, 11-36 on 26″ wheels: Low weight, no changing issues and fine for massive days up mountains in the Cairngorms. I’m a crusty who rides once a week but am a scrawny anorexic creature.

I’m running 32 nw with a 11-40 on the back and I find its a great setup. Gives enough speed on the downs and can cope with the steep climbs no problem. I ran a 34 up front in the summer and it was definitely tougher on the climbs and saw no noticeable benefit on the downs so the 32 will stay coming out of the winter.

I did initially find the jump between the cog your remove a jump too far but having put a 16t cog from rose bikes in place I can no longer feel a jump.

No shifting issues prior to the 16t cog or now though, gear change snappy and unaffected. I did also need a longer chain though

I think for a HT or any bike that climbs at least ok then 1 x 10 is going to be nae bother at all – you’re just be looking nuanced differences on the climbs. Most people adapt to 32 x 18 when they try singlespeeding so a 1 x 10 drivetrain is nowt to worry about.

Being in the UK is part of it, as well – missing bottom end gear ratios really starts to bite on climbs that are looooooong (IME), and we have so few of them here.

I don’t use a “ghost granny” but it can definitely make sense- I get on OK with 11-42, 32, but you often see people who’ve got on fine with it on their local trails then go somewhere else and die (Kinlochleven is good for this- very grindy climb up past mamore lodge, breaks loads of people). This is where having an emergency backup comes in. If you’re using it every ride it’s obviously not the right choice.

The only times I’ve not been able to ride up a hill with my 11-42, and that’s very rare, have been hills where I’m totally happy getting off and walking occasionally. Even if I had a granny on it, there’s still a fair chance I’d get off, just to vary the activity and look at the views! I’m not mighty or anything, it’s just that I lost relatively few low gears, I realised that most of the time when I was in the granny I was still in the high end of it.

I’ve got a 32t chainring and a 36t cassette on my 29er and haven’t yet struggled in North Wales, although I’ve ridden very little recently so that may well change.

Really? But you still want a granny, which when matched with a mech, the chain doesn’t fall off IME. Not to worry, I must be daft not to see the sense there.

I run 1×10 with 11-36 cassettes on my bikes, 34t on 26″, 32t on 27.5″. Works great for everything I’ve done in the last few years, can’t remember the last time I dropped a chain (was before I had narrow-wide rings), dropper remote fits where the front shifter would be, very reliable shifting. But I’m not sure I could handle for instance a week of riding in Scotland if I were pedalling the climbs, due to the length of them and the leg fatigue from consecutive days of big rides – so bunging on a granny ring for emergencies would be a sensible move on such an away trip. If it was something I needed to use frequently I wouldn’t be running this gearing – but as I said, it’s always worked fine thus far.

Most of my rides are in the peaks, for a year I did 11-36 and 30t front 26 inch wheels it was a bit tough sometimes I’m not the best climber though. Now on 11-42t and 32t front.

1×10 in mid-Wales for the last nine months or so, 34T front narrow-wide and 11-40T on the rear. Rode over 500 000 ft of climbing and nearly 5000 miles in 2014 and did not find the 1×10 restricting apart from one location where if I’m honest even 2×10 had me off pushing in places on some of the 1:4 muddy climbs. Don’t think I’d be so happy running a standard 11-36 10 speed cassette though, need the 40T extender cog so I can go up in size at the front as I ride to the trails (8 miles down the hill from Nant-yr-arian) as well as commute on the mtb.

@chickenman I run my 1×10 with a 34 up front and a 42 at the back. That gives a lower gear than a 30 front and a 11-36 cassette,and a much better higher gear the other end. Just dropping front ring size gains a bit of climbing gear but you lose the other end. A range expander does what it says on the tin . Changing the front only moves the existing range.

OK, first post on here so hi 🙂

I run 30T front and 11-40T rear on a 29er HT (Solaris). I live on the edge of the Dales and generally ride either there or in the Lakes with occasional forays down to the Peak. I’m mid fifties and weigh 84Kg

I did quite a bit of calculating gear ratios on the Sheldon Brown site before committing to to 1×10, I figured I was losing about 2 gears (effective) at the low end and slightly more at the top end compared to a standard triple. Against that I rarely used the top end gears and only used the bottom end ratios slightly more than that so I reckoned I was unlikely to notice the “restriction”. There was also the change from 26″ to 29″ wheels on the new bike to take in to account.

I struggled a bit at first and spent quite a bit of time in the lowest three cogs but over time I have got stronger and now spend more time in the middle of the cassette. I’ve done about 1600Km so far on that bike. I might consider moving to a 32T in time. Situations where I’ve got off and walked have usually been those where I’d be walking anyway. At the top end, by the time I spin out I’m going quickly enough to prefer coasting.

With the riding I do – long XC moderately technical routes – I don’t think I’d gain anything by returning to a 2x or 3x set-up. In fact I’m more tempted to head the other way and get a singlespeed HT, I’ve done a few rides where I’ve deliberately tried to avoid gear changes but it does get a bit frustrating on the flat and on-road.

I switched to 1×9 32 x 11-34 a couple of years back and it’s OK for me on the Devon hills and Dartmoor.. I pull the kids to school in a trailer up some big hills also on a 1×9 set up 38 x 11-34 which I think has helped get me used to not having a granny option..

I don’t think I would be phased by any terrain on the 32:34 set up these days as long as I’m riding at my own pace..
I say this as out on a group ride the other night I definitely struggled with the pace after a while

Pete68: What you’ve got with a 34 chainring and a 42 rear cog is almost exactly the same lowest gear as 30/36 setup (35/42 and 30/36 both equate to 5/6); what you’ve gained over the standard 1×10 setup is an extra gear at the top. Not worth the hassle IMO.