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@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.