Now, for my 1x 11 I bought 34t ovals on a 40-11 rear cassette. My view is that I’m not a great climber but can ride a fast flat so I have the gears to do so. I may run “overgeared” uphill but thats not a massive issue and in training builds my leg strength.

But is this the “fastest” way, or should I play to my weakness and slam on a 30T to make life easier, with the issue that ultimately I’ll be slower up climbs?

What is faster? Its the suffering, isn’t it…

Depends on a lot of factors, how fit you are, where you ride being two of them. Changing a chainring is a 10 minute job so don’t feel as if you have to get it right first time. Try different sizes and see which one fits your riding the best.

You are over thinking it way too much.

Get a couple of cheap ones at different sizes and go and try them out.

Everyone is different as so are the bikes / trails we ride.

I don’t think there’s a “one size fits all” answer to this

I use a 32T oval with 11-40 out the back. It’s not the fastest but it’s pretty much OK for 90% of the riding I do.

Smaller chainring means you might run out of gears for extra top speed going downhill or on the flat, larger chainring means you might run out of gears to get up an incline and are forced to walk up hill with bike. 😉

My Wazoo is 1×8, on the flat (unless headwind), I’m typically using 34-15 or 34-13 when exerting myself.
Up a short ~2min ~6% road climb, I will typically use 34-23 (4th gear) or 34-20.
8th gear 34-11 only gets a look in when going down a decent descent, not helped by the big jump in effort from 34-13.
First and second gear (34-30 and 34-26) pretty much only get used on off-road inclines, which doesn’t happen that often for me.

In many respects, for the riding I do, it would make sense to source a bigger chainring (36T, 38T, 40T). However, my issue is, the On One Ringmaster is the only n/w chainring I know of that lists 8-speed officially and 34T is their largest size (I’m kind of tempted to buy one of those cheap £10 Superstar ones to try).

Cost, colour and availability for me

I’m a sucker for branding / image

You are over thinking it way too much.

Shirley Knot

If I was a racer like you, I’d do both.

Fit a 30T for day to day stuff so you can ride in comfort; 30:11 at 100rpm is still a fair tilt and as I’ve said before my bottle runs out at those speeds faster than my legs do, and you can climb all day on 30:40

And then if you need to, fit a bigger one for racing, also bearing in mind that a/ it’s a 5 minute job and b/ there’s no reason why you can’t have 30, 32 and 34T at your disposal and change to suit courses / conditions / how you feel if you want.

And if you need to do some training with big lower gears every now and then, to build leg strength for race day, you don’t have to use the 40T, limit yourself to 30:36 which is effectively the same as 34:40 anyway

34 front is pretty big unless you regularly prioritise bombing down fireroads.

30T for me on a 29er, 28 on the fatbike. But where I ride does tend to be winch and plummet type stuff.

I’ve never really spun out on 30/11 on proper trails, only on road/fireroad.

I run 32t front and 11-42t back, top end wise the fastest I’ve recorded is 53kph down a fire road, there’s no chance I’d be doing those kind of speeds on anything even remotely technical.

I run with 32T oval (11-40T on the back) on the 29er and 28T oval (11-42T on the back) on the fat bike. The 28T is direct mount.

Both are about right *for me* but there was one hill on the Rovaniemi 150 where I was beginning to feel that 26T might have been better but I could also have had the wrong tyre pressures.

What wheel size BTW? On a 29er unless you are somewhere very flat or very, very hilly then 30T or 32T would be the main options. Add 2T to both sizes for 650b and another 2T for 26″.

Pony up for a SRAM 10-42 cassette and 32T ring and have a bigger top gear than 34/11 and an almost equivalent low gear to 30/40.
But that wasn’t your question was it, your question was should gear setup favour your strengths or be tailored towards your weaknesses. No idea.

It is 29er and I do prioritise fireroads as i have a weird way of being quote fast on the flat yet not so good on climbs. Hence my strategy is to spin yet with a bigger front ring for speed…

Is this about racing or just bimbling about the place?

Sounds like a double front would be ideal….

Triple ftw

@ legend – racing.

Depends on wheel size too.

I’ve a 29er with a 30T front and 11-42 cassette. My 27.5″ bike is fine with a 32T front and 11-42 cassette. Both are around the pedalling sweet spot for me, I live in a hilly part of the South East.

Presumably the answer is “it depends”. My SS running 32×16 is fine for all my usual riding except when I do a race in which case I’m crying out for a lower gear. Same with my 1×10 CX, fine for all the hills I’ve ever dragged it up, seriously, I can practically climb up walls on it, did a flat CX race round the local park and again I was desperate for lower gearing.

So I reckon, if you’re going to be redlining – use a smaller ring, general riding – stick with what you prefer.

depends on how long you’ll be spending on the “weakness” parts of the course, and how much on the “strength”

If there’s 10 mins fire road per lap and 2 mins of steep tech climbing, you’ll be better off maximising for high gear, if it’s the other way round, it’s the other way round.

I think a selection of 3 or so is the right answer, especially if there’s a mix of endurance and xc. Eg, 30t for a 24:12 type course and 32 or 34t for a flat n’fast xc course. Given that they are relatively fast-wearing consumables, I don’t think it would be wasted having a 30,32, and 34 on the go.

34 for enduro races, 32 for trail bizzniz

27.5

Depends on wheel size.
I’ve got a 29er and got 28t chain ring and 11-42t at the back and the range is good for mountain biking (don’t spin out until > 50kph yet still have a low enough gear for steep uphill)

Depends on the bike and riding style.

My rigid bike gets zipped along roads quite a lot and also winched up mountains at the end of long days, so it has a triple *gasp*. My long travel bike gets thrown down trail centre descents and winched back up, so it has double and bash, and would probably have 1×10 if I were to spend money on it, with a small ring.

Single front chainring – what is “right”?

What works for me is a 28t round chainring on a 650b bike with an 11 speed 11-42 cassette. Most people will assure you that this is far too small…

Depends of your wheel size, other than anything else.

I run 32 x 11/42 on teh 650b susser and 30 x 11/42 on the 29er/650b+ hardtail. I would dig out some inch-per-gear diagrams for you, but I am technically working at the moment.

I figure you can run out of gears going up, but you can always freewheel going down.

Why not keep the 34 oval but put an 11-46 or even an 11-50 on the back for the best of both worlds .

Depends on your climbing style.

Are you a spinner or do you mash?

I wouldn’t go any bigger than a 28t chain ring on a 29er. I used to have a 30 and it was really hard work on anything steep.

I believe the equivelant is a 30t on a 27.5 inch wheel or a 32t on a 26 inch wheel

What will happen if your climbing on the big ring is it will wear out quickly. It’s made aluminium the others are steel. I’d go down one and get a good chain line. You’ll be just as fast and faster up hill. Spin to win.

All above… it depends 😀

Wheel size, typical terrain, fitness, etc.

Myself, 34t on my 26ers, 32t on 27.5. Feel roughly the same to me. I’d find 30t too small for the top end even on the 27.5, and the 40t rear is plenty enough for big climbs anyway.

Just get a 32T, middle ground between 30/34 & make sure its round, pedal smoothly in circles and you’ll be fine. Oval choppy pedalling will only add to the feeling of being in the wrong gear