I have 1x on my road bike, live in lincs, can easily do 100km with sub 200m of climbing, of course, i can switch it to 2x whenever i want, 10 minute job

AXS with 50t front and 33t rear

s600 0 60

Commuter/winter road bike is 42tbchain ring with 11-34 cassette (9 speed) suits the application, cheap parts, simple drivetrain no real worries about ultimate pace or perfect cadence.

Nice road bike is still 2x but I am half tempted by the idea of a 1×11 drive with a 44 or 46t chainring and an 11-42 cassette, it would only be a little shy of a more conventional 2x range missing the top gear or two which I barely use much anyway…

If “the point” hinges on the number of front rings you have, it sounds a bit crap tbh.

I’m going to convert mine to 1x at some point. My old “fast hybrid” that it’s kind of replacing was the same. I’ve never wanted more or less gears than it has. I mean, I’ll likely never do a 200 mile day or ride it up Alpe d’Huez or anything and that does influence it but equally it’s not flat here.

I live just outside Norwich and have been running 1x on my road (and now gravel) bikes for as number of years. Before that I was riding fixed. Never had an issue with it around these parts. I don’t ride with a club though, and use it more for fitness rides where I don’t have time to get out on the mtb.

It’s the chainline with 1x on a road bike that would annoy me. On an MTB when your gears are full of grit anyway, it doesn’t really matter if your chain has a bit of noise/friction. On a road bike I think the chainline is way more important.

When I first came to road biking I did consider switching to 1x (having ridden 1x on MTB for a few years), but I wouldn’t switch to it now.

Modern application of 1x probably better than the early adoption I used. The new 12 speed AXS on the bikes listed here would suit the vast majority of my riding, Campag are very soon going to be releasing a 13 speed set up (Ekar I believe it will be called).

I do like the idea of a sequential Di2 set up so 22 speed

You won’t get 22 speed though as some are duplicates. But get Di2 double anyway as it’s lush 🙂

It’s the chainline with 1x on a road bike that would annoy me. On an MTB when your gears are full of grit anyway, it doesn’t really matter if your chain has a bit of noise/friction. On a road bike I think the chainline is way more important.

Actually, I’m still a 2x fan and don’t like poor chainline either, but I thought 1x might actually improve chainline? Typically on my big ring I’ll go up as far as the 3rd or 4th biggest sprocket, so past midway on the cassette. Similarly on the little ring I might go down as far as the 7th or 8th sprocket.

If the single ring of a 1x setup is aligned slap bang in the middle of the cassette, then in theory you’d spend more time with better chainline?

Another ride today, just rode to how the legs felt, and they often want to spin spin spin. Felt great but yeah, I was all over the gears constantly finding that perfect ratio, wouldn’t have been as nice with a 1x I don’t think.

I do like the point somebody made further up about using 1x or even singlespeed to ‘train’ the legs to an imperfect cadence. Seems like a good way to get stronger. Saying that, I need to do a couple of months serious strengthening before I dare wheel the singlespeed back out…

My main / fast road bike is set up with 52/36 up front and 11-30 out back in Shimano R8000 Di2 flavor, its most excellent.

My crap weather bike is my CX race bike, but I run a 42t single front and a 11-36t 11 speed cassette all in SRAM Force, its got more than enough range for everything I ride including trips into that there hilly Wales, I’ve done 200k rides on it and never thought, oooh my gears aren’t close enough together at the back.

On a road bike I think the chainline is way more important.

Agreed, although I think it’s the combination of poor chainline with tall 1x chainrings that makes it noisy.

My CX bike has SRAM CX 1 which has the chainline much closer to the centre of the cassette than typical 1x setups, and it’s still noisy in lower gears compared to a 2x setup.

I thought noise in low gears was just due to the range the mech and chain have to cover? I wince whenever I see a rear mech at full stretch trying to accommodate some massive sprocket…

Even on my dedicated 1x bike, going into the biggest sprocket is an absolute last resort, everything about it is nasty, including the shift to try and get back out of it!

If the single ring of a 1x setup is aligned slap bang in the middle of the cassette, then in theory you’d spend more time with better chainline?

Except that it isn’t usually. 1x chainline is usually someway outboard of centre, but even if it is centred, 2x is potentially better. From what you describe, it sounds like you use 8 sprockets on each chainring. If your chainrings are centred on those 8, that’s cross chaining by up to 3.5 sprocket spacings either way. A centred 1×11 would be 5 either way. A typical Shimano 1×11 is probably 7 to the big sprocket.

I thought noise in low gears was just due to the range the mech and chain have to cover?

I don’t think so, assuming you’ve got enough B-tension to get it off the sprockets.

The tension in the lower part of the chain is probably higher, but still low compared to the top part of the chain.

A long mech stretched all the way forward will shorten the run between chainring and lower jockey, exacerbating the poor chainline coming off the chainring.

but even if it is centred, 2x is potentially better. From what you describe, it sounds like you use 8 sprockets on each chainring. If your chainrings are centred on those 8, that’s cross chaining by up to 3.5 sprocket spacings either way. A centred 1×11 would be 5 either way. A typical Shimano 1×11 is probably 7 to the big sprocket.

D’oh! Of course, good explanation.

A long mech stretched all the way forward will shorten the run between chainring and lower jockey, exacerbating the poor chainline coming off the chainring.

Likewise.

I really hope you’re some sort of engineer, because apparently I am and neither of those things had occurred to me 😀

I’ve just spent too long staring at them on the workstand trying to work out why they’re so damned noisy! 😀

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with 1x for general pootling. If you want to be pushing along at speed and maintaining a decent cadence, that’s where a tight cassette comes in, and unless you go 1x with 11 or 12-25 or perhaps 28 if you’re running 11s (fine if you really do live in a flat place) you’ll be getting gaps around your cruising speed. There’s no reason not to do this if you just don’t need the double.
Having that 1 tooth gap is great.
I speak as someone that happily rides 1×10 on one of my MTBs (which loses a bit on the top end, but that’s fine, I spin out a bit pedalling hard on flat tarmac but I don’t do that enough to worry.) The 2t gap at the top of that feels huge when you’re at a steady state on a road. It’s not an issue when you’re up and down the block off road and your cadence won’t be ideal anyway. I’ve also happily run fixed in the past – it’s different when you’re accepting that you have 1fg and you spin and grind as necessary. I race track from time to time too, and even there you have a good idea what speed the bunch will cruise at, and as you accelerate you want a higher cadence to match the power anyway – but people will change a single tooth on the chainring to get the best gear for them.

It’s a balance of trade off for range vs increments for most people.

If you’re running a reasonably modern 2x drivetrain with a 50/34 compact chainset and something like an 11-32 cassette (that is what comes on a lot of road bikes now) or a more manly 11-28 you’ll be used to relatively ‘fine’ steps between gears then you’ve got a pretty broad range of gearing ratios from as low as 1.06:1 (34-32)/ 1.2:1 (34-28) up to 4.54:1 (50-11), I’m ignoring Standard Chainsets for the purposes of this…

Going to 1x on a road bike you can take several different approaches because not all road bikes will be used the same:

Pick a middling-ish chainring (low to mid 40s, note: 42t is exactly half way between 34 and 50) and either something like an MTB/Gravel bike cassette (11-42ish) you get range at the expense of those increments but that might still give you a reasonable “All-rounder”/sportive type bike.

You can opt to use that same low 40something chainring with a more conventional cassette (say 11-32) you get closer steps but not the low end (1.37:1 ratio with a 44-32 gear would still be usable for lots of climbs), both options sacrifice a step or two from the top end but the drivetrain is simpler and might suit general lane bimbling depending on your local hills…

You could opt for a taller geared bike (say a 48 or 50t ring) again with that regular 11-32t cassette and you’d probably be able to ride quite a lot of places if you are a stronger rider. it could work if you’re somewhere flatter, or you’re building something quite specific like a crit or TT bike and probably allows you to use a simpler road mech…

You could also pitch it lower say a 38 or 40t chainring and an 11-40/11-42 cassette and achieve a sub 1:1 ratio, arguably on par with a triple or sub-compact chainset for an ultimate climbing gear when laden, but obviously you’d be giving away more at the top end (of course 10t sprockets are an option as well now) again you’d be going for range at the expense of some top end

But I think when you say “1x Road bike” you could actually mean a number of different configurations/use cases.

it certainly makes sense on more gravelly bikes or bikes, winter road bikes or perhaps intended to swap wheels for different uses.

As for chainline, well the optimum position is probably in-between the normal 2x chainring positions innit.
For my own 1x road bike I’ve just opted to mount the ring in the inner position on an old compact chainset, when I’m in the 11t it’s slightly graunchy due to the angle but it’s tolerable and works…
Chainline can be improved quite easily, it’s not too hard and it’s not like this hasn’t been dealt with on MTBs already.

I’ve changed to 1x on my “road” bike and am really happy with it. It’s more of an Audax/light tourer but I use it for commuting as well. Mainly use 42t n/w ring at the front and 11-36 at the back, which gives me a decent top speed and low enough gears to get up anything a bit steep. I don’t race or ride with a group so cadence and maintaining a specific speed doesn’t matter to me, and the simplicity is something I appreciate.

I think a lot of these comments are not really aimed at someone who is riding in a flat place.
Pick a very close ratio cassette, pick a chainring size to give your cruising speed at your preferred RPM using a cog in or around the middle of the cassette (say 90RPM at 20mph) and it will be perfect.
Can go down to the higher gears on occasion and up to lower gears on occasion but 99% of the time will be spent in the 3 or 4 cogs around the middle which will all be 1 tooth apart if using an 11,12,13,14,15,16,17,19,21,23 cassette so say the 13 – 16.