Anybody finding 1x11 anybody finding it a struggle on steep climbs? 32t front?
Not personally, no.
My canyon came with a 34. Nothing's beaten me yet, but I've just got a 32 to use the cassette more evenly. I was slightly aprenhensive, moving from 3x9, there's no way I'd move back
1x10 with an 12-36 here. Gets a burn on sometimes but does the job...... and makes me feel properly #ENDURO!
Nope. But then I've got a 30T.
1x10 here and can do anything I did on the 3x8 before it. (Lost a gear and a half each side).
I recently moved to 1x10 but made sure the range on the new cassette(SLX with Superstar expander) was such that with a 32T front ring it was similar to first gear in my old 3x9.
First gear is now 32/40 compared to 24/32, about a 6% increase in gearing but close enough to be manageable. I always have the option of a 42T rear which would make it almost identical to before if it turns out I'm struggling (I've not had many miles with the new drivetrain to be fair but initial impressions are very encouraging).
Might get a 30t to have as a back up! New bike is 1x11 and I'm a bit concerned!
Not steep hills. Really long draggy lumpy ones, sometimes. But not on normal rides.
11-42 with a 36t here, it's fine
30T up front with 11-36 + 40T extender at the back. On a 29er. I struggled a bit at first but haven't used the extender in quite a while now so possibly could go to 32T.
Gone from 3x9 to 1x10 32 front 36T rear. I ride in South Wales (y wal, whites, blade and natural) nothing has beaten me yet. I'll keel over before I give in!
Nope. Managed XC days in the Alps and things like the Selkirk MTB Marathon with 32T and 11T-36T.
Also done fine with big days on a heavy full suss with 32T - 11T-32T (1x9) although rough climbs are really hard on the legs compared to being able to spin.
Stick with it for a bit and it won't be a problem any more!
its the long steep "killing me softly" climbs that made me regret getting XX1 i'm on 32 too. I have no problem with it anywhere in Cannock ..but the likes of Shropshire made me wish I should have stayed with 2x.
32 FR 12/42 rear on a 26er. Often feel the need for a lower gear when tired. Hills round here are long and steep!
Will there be a noticeable difference between the 30t and the 32t front ring?
I started with 34 then droped to 32 then 30. TBH 30 means I have to double shift up but overal its a better gear. I did Trans Portugal on 34 and wish I had a 30 🙂
Really depends on your fitness and steepness but 30 for me is great alround
Try a 30 its easy to change rings and chain length and you might be surprised
Just do more riding? I'm looking forward to using 1x11. 3x9 is such a faff. And after trying 2x10 and 1x11 on an excellent NWMTB test day a while back 1x11 was spot-on. Simple. Efficient. Albeit a bit tough here and there.
32t oval (30-34 effective) with an 11-40 1x10. No problem on the steep climbs on the Malverns on a 170mm full sus.
I run 1x10 with 30t NW on my 32lb Cove Hardtail, 11x36 plus 40t expander ring, it's fine for everywhere but I'm 17 odd stone in riding kit now so I've a fair bit of weight to winch up any climbs......why destroy your legs and spoil a ride.......try dropping to a 30t and if it suits your riding stick with it, not every rides a race 😆
My Canyon came with a 34t chainring up front on 1x11, previously had 32t on 1x10 (36t cassette). Just stuck with the 34t and tried to avoid the 2 smallest gears as much as possible to force my legs to like it. Like Suggsey I'm 17 stone kitted out.
According to Strava, the (steepest) hills I do on local trails are a category 3 (a bit under 700 feet in 2 miles) and I'm around 200/400 on the chart thing despite hating climbing up hills. The gearing/drivetrain shouldn't make any difference, just persevere with the long slog climbs and it gets easier on the 1x11 🙂
Just went from 2x10 to a 38t and 11-36 here, fine round Sherwood, harder round Cannock, definitely need to go smaller at the front if I'm going anywhere with real hills.
1x10, 34T Chainring 40T on Cassette, only once wished for a more granny.
99% of the time it's great.
30t with 11-36 on a 29er for me. Seems fast enough on the flats and downs, although I am happy to spin the pedals, and the 30t front ring makes the climbs a bit easier.
My wife is pretty quick on a bike and runs a 28t on the front of her 29er with an 11-36 cassette. Seems to work for her, but I think it would be too spinny for me.
Without talking about the wheel size, talking about the chainring size is meaningless.
A 29 tooth chainring on a 29er is equivalent to a 32 tooth on a 26er. God knows what it is on a twentysevenandahalfertwosixtybe.
Agreed. I thought it was basically a 2t difference between wheel sizes
Fwiw I use 34t front (11-42 10speed rear) with 27.5 and have no issues. I may go up to 36t soon.
650b, new bike with 1x11 32 front 42-10 rear. First ride was a 4 day coast to coast, 203 miles with 22000ft of climbing.
Some of it destroyed me.
Some of it I had to keep pushing because I had no gears left.
Overtaking people uphill purely because you have no more gears and it's either deal with it or walk is weirdly satisfying.
I've got 1x10: a 32t up front with 42t extender. I would say the steeper stuff is hard but isn't it always?
I've got 11-42. 32t up front. By the time I get into the 42, I'm better off walking!
32 + 10-42 on 26" full sus or 32 + 11-36 on 26" hardtail
Been on 1x 11 for about a year now. It's fine in the Peaks, it was OK in the alps when I did the TP last summer - most of the climbs were long & draggy rather than steep, and I was usually one of the last 2 riding.
I have struggled in the Lakes though - steep technical loose climbs - I just can't get the power down stood up well enough to keep traction. Will try a 30T ring next time I head that way.
I'm on 11-36 10sp on a 32 front, and I live in Calderdale. It gets a bit 'grunty' occasionally but it's perfectly do-able
11-40 with a 32 up front is perfect in the Lakes but big grippy nates help 🙂
🙂
Without talking about the wheel size, talking about the chainring size is meaningless.
Without talking about the wheel size, talking about the chainring size is meaningless.
Without talking about the wheel size, talking about the chainring size is meaningless.
Without talking about the wheel size, talking about the chainring size is meaningless.
[b]Without talking about the wheel size, talking about the chainring size is meaningless.[/b]
Without
talking
about
the
[b]wheel
size[/b],
talking
about
the
[b]chainring
size [/b]
is...
[b]meaningless[/b].
❗
Only when I have been trying to hard at the end of a ride and the just one more hill is one too many and my legs are cramping up. Don't think that's the 1x11, the 32 or the fact my biggest sprocket is a 40.
It's just my lack of pacing and energy management.
nikk, it's not a thread about wheelsize (or cassette size or front ring size for that matter)
It's a thread about reassurance
I rode in Mid Wales at the weekend (2 full and 2 half days) with a 1x11 setup and it was fine, I got up all the hills I've previously got up using a 3x9 setup. I've trained a bit (and shed some excess weight by eating less and riding more), some climbs that used to daunt me were easily doable.
My setup is 650b running a 10-42 cassette with a 32 front ring. I took a 30 tooth front ring but after the first day decided to not bother changing it. It's very odd when I go back to my 3x9 setup on the HT as it just seems inefficient especially the gears that are 'duplicated'. Total bike weight is 13Kg for my FS whereas my HT is probably nearer 12Kg but the FS seemes to climb really well.
Unless you have stupidly steep hills locally I'd think 1x11 would be fine, as someone said early to get strong
just ride more!
nickc - nikk is right...
Have to be able to compare apples with apples, innit?
I'm no xc whippet and I can get my bike up n down steep stuff with 1x10 and a 40t expander with a 32t, for ews I swapped to a 30t to spare my legs a bit, but if I'm not racing 32 is fine
1x11 will leave you wondering why anyone botheres with front mechs
1x10 on 650B here. 32T front, 40T on the back. Malverns are quite steep if you've ridden here! Also been up Cadair Idris, Quantocks, FoD, few trail centres, etc.
I thought the Malverns would be too hard but after a bit you get used to it. I use the bail out 40T less and less now, although I'm glad to have it for the last climb of the day. Definitely agree with JonE there's a couple of climbs that feel a bit 'singlespeed-y' and I would like a lower gear so I could sit and spin up them.
Otherwise tho, much preferred to 2x10, quiet, efficient, looks better 😉 I'm leaving 2x10 on the 29er tho!
650b hardtail with 30t and 11-36. I'm not always quick but it's enough to grind up the hills round here (Lochaber), and I'm not small.
Currently struggling with this dilemma myself , just ordered a bird aeris and am keen on going 1 x 10 but struggle with the thought of losing my granny ring . Can see all the benefits but there is a nagging doubt 1 x is not for me
@moons.... I had exactly the same dilemma. Until the day before they built it, I stuck with 2x10 but the guys at Bird told me the aeris works better 1x10/11 - basically (i think) it's designed for a single chairing up front. I decided to man up.. so far so good.
When this drivetrain (XT1x10) wears out, I'll go to new Shimano 1x11 and an oval ring. Really thought they were a gimmick but having had a go on one, definitely worth doing if you're changing your drivetrain. Not sure Bird can do you one on the initial build tho...
I've been pondering this as well. However, using an online gear calculator that lets you compare different set ups, when I move from my current 26" 3 x 9 setup and go to 650b 30 x 11-42, I lose one gear from the bottom and two from the top.
When I started mountain biking, it was 12-28 with 28-38-48 rings!
That guy's right about the wheel size...
I went from 32T on a 26er set up 1X10 and assumed 32T would be the same on a 650b. Duh. Anyway, it wasn't, and I swapped to a 30T running 1X11 on the 650b and it's spot on for anything from Swinley to the Alps.
@onzadog Just how many times do you use your current bottom gear? On my previous bike (26" and the then standard 3x9) it was very rarely so I haven't really noticed "the loss". I can get up "most" of the hills here in the Dales, the ones I fail on tend to get rocky at the same time as I run out of oomph. Getting off and walking a hundred metres or so isn't really an issue.
I see that SRAM are promoting a road 1x drivetrain.
I tried 1x10 for a few months on a HT 29er. I had 11-42 with a 28T chainring. It worked fine and wasn't much worse than a 2x10 setup, but it was still a bit worse and I couldn't really notice any advantages. I don't find front mechs hard to setup or maintain and the weight saving is too small for me to care. So I went back to 2x10. In practice I very rarely use my 22x36 gear, but when I want it I really want it.
Having said that, it's worth pointing out that going up a given slope at a given speed requires you to produce the same power regardless of the gear you are in. Pushing a bigger gear (at a lower cadence) requires more force (i.e. bigger muscles) but the same power. If you ride the bigger gear for a while you will build up the muscles (just try not to blow your knees out in the meantime).
So, I wouldn't be put off a 1x setup if there were some advantage that I cared about (e.g. some full suss 29ers can't run a front mech, so if I wanted one of them I'd live with 1x) but I wouldn't bother ditching a perfectly good 2x setup.
I like, and use my granny gear.
On my 650b I regularly winch myself up local climbs on 24/34 which is around a 19.5" gear.
On some loose surfaces, with steep, prolonged ascending, I would loose traction or fatigue.
Works a treat at the end of a long ride when faced with a steep climb.
All horses for courses with lots of variables: cadence, gradient, leg power etc.
I do like the clean lines of a single NW chainring up front though.
@whitestone, I use it a lot. Whinching a 36lb 160mm dual suspension up hills in the Peak district can be hard work. The road climb at the bottom of Snowdon from llanberis, I used it there as well.
Fair enough, I've found that as I've got used to the range of the 1x10 I've looked for it less and less. I used the 40T a reasonable amount at first but now could probably either drop it or go to a 32T at the front.
That climb out of the village is a b**ch!! Never liked it when walking up to Cloggy (big crag off to right) when I used to climb.
I must be soft!
26" hardtail has 30t and 11-42
Might try a 32t as I'm running out of gears at the top end occasionally, but I wouldn't want to go lose much more than that at the low end as I'm using 'em all.
I find it roughly equivalent to my 26" 2x10 (24t granny) 11-36 for climbing ability.
The thing is too, it's not so much about making it up, sometimes 1x means you still get to the top, it's just much less fun, or much more tiring. I figured out at the glentress seven this year after a few laps that I was faster pushing up the unpleasant bit of the climb then riding the next bit of the climb faster, than I was burning the legs to ride it. Might still have been the case with a granny ring to be fair. But forcing your way up a climb can take it out of you.
Been running a 30t for winter but now we are in the midst of the HK summer I'm on the verge of dropping to a 28t for month or so, I'm no great climber at the best but trying to get up 300-500 meters in 35 degree heat and with 80-100%% humidity hurts.
There is no need for guessing, the overall gear can be calculated as inches traveled per crank revolution. I am going from a 26" wheel 2x9 setup to a 27.5" 1x11 so I wanted to figure out how it compared before buying.
My existing 9spd cassette goes from 11-34t with 22/34t chainrings. This gives a low gear of 52.9 in/rev which lets me spin a nice cadence up steep hills. The new bike is 10-42t cassette so I will need a 26t chainring to get closest to that gear with 53.5 in/rev. Luckily the bike comes with a Raceface Turbine direct mount crank and can take a 26t ring ok.
The next question is what do you lose by going to a small ring. The old bike went up to 252.5 in/rev in top gear and 213.6 in the second smallest cog with big ring. The 1x11 will do 224.6 in/rev in top which is pretty close to my old second-from-top gear. I find that I *VERY* rarely spin out top gear so thats no big loss to me, however I am often spinning the smallest gear up hills. So 26 tooth it is 🙂
On 26" I really like te AB 32 and 11-36 except for the knee pain which starts after 2 hrs. Going back to 32/24 & 11-36 setup for longer rides.
My bike is 34:20 with an 8spd Alfine, old hat 26".
Really don't miss the lower gears although my other bike is a singlespeed so I suppose I've forgotten what a proper spinny gear feels like. The singlespeed as taught my legs/brain that its OK to stand on the hills occasionally and if it were geared any lower, I might as well just walk, it'd be no slower 🙂
According to Sheldon, my set up is approximately the same as 32:30.