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How about trying your 36T at front with 34T at rear & see how hard it is to climb any hills starting on some easy hills to see how you get on..
when you normally ride & use the Granny ring do you like to spin slowly up the hill or make your legs work a bit in a higher gear?
You won't regret taking the plunge it's just so easy to change into the gear on the trail you need. Just back from Cmw Carn loop. My only thought was why didn't I change to 1 x 11 sooner.
I run 36t up front it's perfect. Not found myself under geared.
Just moved over from a double. Had a 28 on previously so moving to a single 30t on-one ringmaster (which is spot on for 23 quid) hasn't been a problem. Two rides in and im a convert, may move to 32 in a few months then 34.
when you normally ride & use the Granny ring do you like to spin slowly up the hill or make your legs work a bit in a higher gear?
Im definitely a spinner. Dig in and grind it out is how i approach them. I wouldn't get halfway up some of the hills in calderdale or the peak district without a granny ring and thats a fact.
Might just buy some new chainrings and a rear mech, much cheaper than replacing the lot and more gears to choose from 😉
Pawsy_Bear - Member
You won't regret taking the plunge it's just so easy to change into the gear on the trail you need. Just back from Cmw Carn loop. My only thought was why didn't I change to 1 x 11 sooner.
How is it any easier? Its pretty easy at the moment i just push the lever and the gears change.
Been running 1x for 5 years or so........ Took some getting used to initially, but I won't ever be having a front mech again.
It depends what bike you're looking at going 1x-- on. My hardtail is 1x9 and I can climb on that all day long. My 160mm full susser is 2x10, and I wouldn't even entertain going 1x10 on that thing!
How is it any easier? Its pretty easy at the moment i just push the lever and the gears change.
I'd say easier as you click and get the next gear in line rather than getting to a point and then dropping down 15t on the front and then changing the rear back up the cassette to close to where you were before or moving to mach 9 with your cadence to match the gearing difference or having the sudden drop in speed.
The missus was a little sceptical about 1x11 but the range makes it work and we just converted her other bike to 11-40 1x10 as she likes the 1x so much.
I see what youre saying there, although if you do it well theres not much drop in cadence. I can shift down a cog at the front and up a couple at the back, all at the same time as long as i time it so that the chain isn't under too much tension. Its usually the point where i'm running out of steam but have enough left to give the cranks a good couple of turns, ready for the drop. You can plan this point on the hill depending on how steep or technical it is. You do lose a bit of speed though. Maybe having more gears is a bit lazy?
Where Abouts do you live mike? Any big hills?
Where I ride I regularly use the granny ring or next gear on my full sus, with 38/24 double and 11-36 10 speed cassette. So, using the gear calculator above, my current lowest gear ( 24/36 ) gives me 1.3 (what?) If i went to a single upfront ring of 30 and got a T. rex 40 rear, 30/40 would give me a lowest gear of 1.5. Which is the same as 24/32 , the second easiest gear I have now....or am I totally wrong?
You divide the number of front teeth by the number of rear teeth and that gives you the gain ratio.So 32/40=0.8 lowest gear; 32/11= 2.91 highest gear
22/30=0.73 or 22/26=0.85 so they're your closest low gears. In other words, second to lowest is a bit lower (easier), third from lowest is a big higher (harder).
The big deal about XX1 and X01 is not so much the 42t sprocket as the 10t sprocket - losing a tooth from the 11t makes almost as big a difference as adding 6 teeth to the 36t. Do both and you go from 327% to 420% of gear variation. Adding a 40t to an 11-36 only gets you 364% (this is just biggest sprocket divided by smallest sprocket, shown as a percentage).
GCSE maths I think but the problem is that unless you do this stuff for your job you forget how do to do it, even if you did know it many years ago!
Not sure why i didnt see this earlier, maybe i just went "ooh maths no compute" and skimmed over it.
@Bomberman
Tasmania there are plenty of good hills here. As the 10-42 covers all bar 2 or 3 of the 2x10 setup it has the range. Fitness is helping for the 11-40 really.
I think you just confirmed what I was saying though with
as long as i time it
It just removes that part of it and with X1 out now the price is coming down.
"with X1 out now the price is coming down."
Yeah i saw that, should be good. Does it all fit on a standard sized freehub or would that need replacing?
Howsyourdad it looks as though youre doing your divisions wrong as 24/36 is 0.66 not 1.3 🙂
I'm guessing it will need the XD conversion as the 10t is smaller than a standard freehub body.
as an aside I remember a series on the bbc years ago where they were taking current products that had evolved over the years and trying to redesign them from the ground up throwing out the old standards/conventions that were not needed. It would be interesting to see if SRAM/Shimano were sent off to come up with a method of gearing a mountain bike from scratch what they would come up with?
Sheldon browns gear ratio calculator
States
24 ring - 36 sprocket - 26" wheel = 1.3 gain ratios
24 ring - 36 sprocket - 29" wheel = 1.4 gain ratios
Bomberman I think your equation for calculating gear ratios on bicycles is not correct as you do not allow for a wheel.
Like mikesmith said its just easier and allows you to keep your cadence up. Shifting is faster no pause while you change the front mech as well up or down so you can get back on the power without having to make a second shift. I also found I had more useful gear range closer together. One less thing to manage on the trail has to be more efficient and make the trail more enjoyable IMHO.
Granny gears are more of a prop than useful and how often did I use them or my top gear in 3 x 9? Not very by the time I had changed to outer then shifted up I would be looking at down shifting for next climb etc Fire roads or tarmac es but then thats not what I want to ride well or at all if I can avoid it ha ha
Why not book a demo or mates bike with 1 x 11 and try it out? That has to be the best way to decide without a massive outlay?
Bomberman I think your equation for calculating gear ratios on bicycles is not correct as you do not allow for a wheel.
It is correct from the perspective of comparing ratios on a single bike. What it doesn't do is apply it in any real world way - so if the gearing is 32/32 ie 1, the wheel will move one full rotation for each pedal revolution. In 44/11, ie 4, the wheel will done 4 full rotations for each revolution of the pedals. The distance the bike moves is dictated by wheelsize (and will be greater of course on a bigger wheel).
Where I ride I regularly use the granny ring or next gear on my full sus, with 38/24 double and 11-36 10 speed cassette. So, using the gear calculator above, my current lowest gear ( 24/36 ) gives me 1.3 (what?) If i went to a single upfront ring of 30 and got a T. rex 40 rear, 30/40 would give me a lowest gear of 1.5. Which is the same as 24/32 , the second easiest gear I have now....or am I totally wrong?
I just used the Sheldon brown online calculator and those were the numbers it gave me. I could be wrong of course. If I'm not wrong is what I said actually ... right? My current second easiest gear with a double set up would be my easiest with a 1 by 10 ..? Thanks in advance
At swinley you come out of the forest onto a fire road that is a relatively steep climb, for me anyway that takes you up to labarinth I believe.
At that point in order to make it up that slope I have to first get into my lowest gear quickly.
Then lean to the left of my fork to drop from 150 to 120, then lean to the right of my fork to stiffen it up a bit more, then lastly between my legs to engage the pro pedal.
If I do not do the above quickly and efficiently I may not make it 😀 .This is due to me being a middle aged biffer on a five, so one less knob to twiddle is a beautiful thing.
At swinley you come out of the forest onto a fire road that is a relatively steep climb, for me anyway that takes you up to labarinth I believe.At that point in order to make it up that slope I have to first get into my lowest gear quickly.
Then lean to the left of my fork to drop from 150 to 120, then lean to the right of my fork to stiffen it up a bit more, then lastly between my legs to engage the pro pedal.If I do not do the above quickly and efficiently I may not make it .This is due to me being a middle aged biffer on a five, so one less knob to twiddle is a beautiful thing.
I stand up 😉
Have gone 1x10 this weekend with Hope's 34t retainer ring on my old XT triple cranks and added a hope t-Rex to my 11-36 now making it 11-40. Did a three hour ride this morning with some very steep hills and coped fine. It was great not having to worry about changing on the front and now means I can run my reverb remote underneath on the left hand side which I couldnt before.
So for a smidgen under £100 I converted from a 3x10 to 1x10 and it took me around 2 hours to convert (including having to drill out a crank bolt that had rounded). Slight B tension adjust and that was it.
Really worth doing, and didnt struggle anywhere near as much as I thought. Yes you need to keep momentum on the climbs but just means a little more concentration and the odd bit of standing up.
Perfect 🙂
I stand up
I have recently given up kebabs so I too one day will be able to make such a statement. 😀
So for a smidgen under £100
Not including cassette, shifter, rear mech and chain i take it? Im going from a 9 speed so i'd need them too.
I have 1x11 on my hardtail and it's been great - I've not run out of gears, even in Calderdale. However, my next full sue bike will probably have 2x10 (at least to start with) because I've never had a problem with a well-maintained front mech and a double. It's (way!) cheaper, and as someone's said, there's that immediate couple of sprockets bail out option of dropping into the inner ring. Shimano and SRAM put a ton of work into making front shifting nearly as instant as rear shifting, so why ignore it? 🙂
Lots of nice, close ratios for decent cadence and a good couple of low gears, rather than a single 'Jesus' gear as on a 1x11 (or especially a 1x10)
Mind you, I'm not a downhill god, so I rarely spin out the top end.
34 X 11/42 10 speed here on my 26" full sus.
The main reason I did it was a desire to experiment (51%) and it looks much nicer (49%) (honest)
Sharp climbs in the Peaks are do-able with a bit of tactical swearing, and it's nice to finally use the 11t regularly.
I'm tempted to put the granny back on to use manually for end of ride fails, but am resisting.
I used strava for the first time the other week and was pretty surprised to see I was hitting 37.6mph on the roads between trails! Had no idea I was going that fast. So I would probably miss the 11t/36t combo if I went 1x10. With this thread in mind though I made a point of not using the 34t or the one down from it and still made the road climb from stagnage edge up towards burbage so I should probably try and man up a bit more often and get the legs working.