Afternoon All,
I've realised that my road and my gravel bikes are very similar, too similar possibly. They are both steel (f&f) both running 35mm plus tyres etc.
My "road" bike is 2x11 105
My gravel bike is 1x11 GRX 44T front chainring & 34T cassette running Ultegra 2x11 brifters.
My gravel bike (Fearless Warlock) is a 1x frame but does have cable routing for a dropper that I don't currently use. There isn't a cable stop for a front mech but there are a number of front mechs that have a stop built in to take a full cable outer. The 105 on my "road" bike is like this.
I have enjoyed using the 2x11 groupset on my "road" bike more than I was expecting.
So I'm looking at 2x'ing the Warlock.
I guess if there is clearance for a 2x chainset and I can get another or use the redundant 105 mech from my "road" bike it should all be possible ... non?
*Road had quotation marks "" as when I was wheeling out out of a new LBS I was trying I was told that it was the least "road" bike they had ever seen 😆 🙄 😢
Need chainring clearance and a smooth straight piece of seat tube with no lumps, bosses or off sets on it. (hydro formed tubes sometimes don't play nice). Also clearance from tyre to the inside face of the tail of the front mech. Cable routing is easy, i've even done it with bikes with no bosses at all, just used some nice stainless clips along the down tube.
I note the Warlock has a kinked seat tube, this might cause issues if the mech sits above the kink as the seat tube won't be radial to the bottom bracket at that point, can lead to issues.
Thanks Mert.
Eye balling the frame the mech ought to go on the lower section of the ST before the bottle cage bolts and the kink.
If it is steel, mounting a FD should be fine. Looking at the frame, it should mount below the seat tube bosses and below the bend. Is there a cable guide underneath the BB? If they are so similar, why not ditch the road bike and keep two sets of wheels? A 44T chainring is pretty decent for road duties and allows me to hang with the medium paced club ride (smaller is a challenge hence the attraction of 2x).
Thanks TiRed.
I am planning on moving on the road bike.
The 2x appeal is that I'd like to keep the current 34T cassette but with the greater range of of two front chainrings.
I have ridden the current 2x11 "road" bike off road and the road 11/28(?) cassette was a bit limiting.
How dare you say 'ditch a bike'. How rude. I'm 2x on all my bikes including the MTB and CX bike. Much prefer the close gears.
You can get band on cable stops - you'd fit this below a band on front mech
https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/gear-spares/origin8-clampon-single-frame-cable-stop-black-349-mm/
I like 1x provided that my fixed gear ratios are covered OK on the road (42x15 is standard). Hence I don't really miss the bigger gears. Smaller would help for off road and my RD can only handle a 34T Ultegra, which conveniently will fit on older Dura Ace 10 speed hubs. The downside is that the offset means trimming the RD when swapping to the road wheels. Obviously 2x is the answer and I even have the cranks and wireless eTap FD to add as a bolt on!
I did a similar thing OP went from 1x10 (tiagra 4700) to 2x10. I had opted for a pair of 2x levers though before hand, and put up with a flappy LH shifter for a bit.
I used a bolt on tiagra mech and a clamp-on adapter and it all worked fine, when I came to do the next bike I chose to go 2x10 again (I guess I like being behind the times), I went poking for front mechs on eBay and scored a cheap Ultegra (6800) which I reckons shifts better even being used as part of a mixed 2x10 setup (4720 levers and a GRX RX400 rear mechs).
So do shop around for a slightly better front mechs, even used and Ultegra front mech seems to be a worthwhile upgrade for relatively little spend (IMO).
Both bikes are running 46/30 chainrings currently which is more of a gravely “sub-compact” setup in most books, but is working for me both on and off-road (with slightly different cassettes).