Just choice though isn’t it
This.
Anyone who spouts that others are doing it wrong is generally a walloper, ride what suits your choice of riding, whatever others choose for their bikes is bugger all to do with me.
To some extent, but most people on 1x have probably spent many years on 2x and 3x so have made it a considered choice, whereas for many who have stuck with a front mech it is more of an academic choice based on what they perceive a 1x to be like. For me 1x is much better for a whole host of reasons so I will happily suggest to anyone that hasn't tried it, that they should give it a go. Much like a dropper post (or suspension, or disk brakes BITD), or, I believe there are putoline evangelists. Pushing the point too far might make you a bit a tool, but I think any pushing of these new ideas comes from trying to help other riders.
I'm a Luddite, I don't think droppers are anything but a luxury item, I have 2x on my road bike and think 52 tooth cassettes are absolutely ridiculous.
But.
1x on an MTB is better IMO. But to work well it does require a certain level of fitness so as not to need those huge cassettes and the associated jumps between cogs.
Saying that though, 3 hours to set up a front mech is ridiculous, get it to the LBS.
But to work well it does require a certain level of fitness so as not to need those huge cassettes and the associated jumps between cogs.
Sorry, you've lost me...You're suggesting that 1x is fine, but only with smaller cassettes? I don't understand.
nickjb, yes, you put it better than me, I'd agree with all of that, it's the folk that will argue they are correct without even having tried 1x, droppers etc that are best avoided.
My commuter has 1x9 36x32-11. 170ft climbing in 4 miles so yeah, we have hills here. BOOM.
I am patiently waiting for the gearbox and belt drive revolution,it's definitely going to be dope.
Sorry, you’ve lost me…You’re suggesting that 1x is fine, but only with smaller cassettes? I don’t understand.
Correct. 1x is a compromise. An 11-52 cassette has huge jumps between cogs which, personally, I don't like at all. A smaller cassette means you have less jumps but also less range. So you either lose some speed or lose an easy gear or 3. I prefer to lose some easier gears.
Correct. 1x is a compromise.
Sure, all bicycle transmission is, Personally I'm happy with Eagle, shifts fine, don't care about the jumps between cogs ( TBH I don't think I've ever thought about it on any bicycle I've ridden) and where I live after a couple of houyrs oin the bike, I'm happy that there's a bail out gear to spin...
Like I said, isn't choice great.
I am patiently waiting for the gearbox and belt drive revolution
I think this has been "the next revolution in drive-trains" since I started on MTB in the 1990's. I don't think it's going to happen any time soon
I spent 3 hours sorting a front mech today
As someone who did pretty much the same last month I feel your pain. The combination of a braze-on mech with a factory-installed bracket (instead of brazed on mount) meant it took ages to work out how to get everything correctly aligned.
Still, 1x anything is a compromise too far when riding; give me 22 gears (with 4 overlapping so 18) rather than 12 and a dinner plate-sized cassette. And that's before we even get to the size of rear mech needed to accommodate said dinner plate
My 1x11 is hardly a dinner plate, 11-42, only 6 teeth more than what we generally all rode with 2x or 3x. It's all a compromise, whatever works for you.
Waderider
MemberI think big mileage users among you lot on 1x are being dry bummed! 2x and 3x with relatively cheap 10 speed cassette and chain replacement is the way forward for the guy or girl who actually gets the miles in.
With SRAM's 11 and 12 speed, the cassettes are expensive but they last a ridiculously long time- like, I'm not even sure how long they last, because replacing them is so infrequent I don't really remember. At the very least twice as long as any standard type cassette I've ever used. And considering the GX cassette was about £75 that works out not bad at all. Chainrings don't last as well, being usually alu and also pretty dependent on being in good nick to do the chain retention, but they cost buttons- less than decent shifting rings.
My other 2 bikes though are just on totally normal 10 speed cassettes. One has an expander ring on it, the other doesn't. So the wear rates unsurprisingly are the same as it would be if I was on 2x.
Obviously front shifting has some implications on chainline and also on wear caused during shifting, but I think it gets pretty much lost in the rounding. Better mud clearance on 1x and never ever jamming or chainsucking or dropping the chain and crunching it about no doubt helps too but I can only really think of that in terms of the couple of chains I outright damaged with 2x or 3x, rather than wear implications.
I'm not a high miler any more, but it wasn't an issue really. A bit of give and take but nothing to influence my preferred drive
But we are sacrificing gear performance – range and incrementally small steps between adjacent gears
To get between adjacent (as in the next easiest/hardest ratio) gears with a 2x or 3x system takes one shift at the very bottom end and top end but at least two and as many as four shifts depending on the difference in sizes of the chainrings for the rest of the range.
To be fair, I think you may have been talking about different things here. It's not so much about gaps between adjacent gears when shifting (where clearly a 1x is more sequential than any 2x or 3x), but more the overall gaps between ratios when considered as a whole.
On an MTB, it really doesn't matter so much (unless you are an XC / endurance rider who sits at 120rpm for 4 hours!) and range is king, but on a road bike, cadence matching is a thing for many riders (including myself). Personally, riding a road bike with a wide range cassette is a pretty miserable experience when holding a constant speed for an extended period as you often find yourself needing an in between gear to match your comfortable cadence. Even the difference between my normal 11-28 and the 11-32 I use on t'gravel bike is enough to drive me nuts if I put the wrong cassette on for a given ride!
It's for this reason that I run 1x on the MTB (which I admit works really well), but 2x on the road and gravel bikes and, at least on the road bike, wouldn't entertain running anything else. Certainly, considerations of how hard it is to set up a front mech have zero bearing on this decision!
TBH I think that's just a thing that's personal preference, but people often assume is universal. I don't like narrow gaps even on the road, so I don't see widening gaps as an issue but I get that others do
(what most people miss is that the gaps between 9, 10, 11 and 12 are actually very similar... The bigger gaps at the bottom end seem huge but gearshifting is proportional so 42 to 50 is a pretty much equivalent shift as 12 to 14
TJ - I very much doubt that a decades old cable feels as nice to use as a newly installed XTR/Dura Ace inner on brand new outers.
As for maintaining things properly - I’d happily have ANY of my bikes compared to yours or anyone else’s by an independent mechanic. Everything from bearings to bartape, bushings to bottom brackets, suspension to spoke tension is sorted on my bikes. I absolutely can’t stand things being out of spec and potentially ruining a ride through irritation.
Oh the sheer joyous inevitability of these threads 🙂
Some light bemoaning of challenges encountered when setting up a front mech, by people not so enamoured with them.
And then right on cue the curmudgeons start up with their own tireless whinging about the apparently shameful demise of chain shoving parallelograms, and the inferred demise of humanity's technical abilities.
Thus turning what should a five post thread into a 2-3 page slagging match...
😂😂😂
most people on 1x have probably spent many years on 2x and 3x so have made it a considered choice,
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
And then right on cue the curmudgeons start up with their own tireless whinging about the apparently shameful demise of chain shoving parallelograms, and the inferred demise of humanity’s technical abilities.
Thus turning what should a five post thread into a 2-3 page slagging match…
As the OP, I was just having a little vent after a frustrating few hours, I never expected to stir up such strong emotions!
I've gone 1x on nearly all of my mountain bikes now, however the one that's still on 3x9 is my Epic and I'm struggling to see what an acceptable 1x set-up would be on that unless I went 12-speed to allow a cassette with a 10t smallest cog.
1x works fine on the other bikes as I don't miss the high gears all that much on them, but I definitely would on the Epic.
