1×10 and fitness

Morning singletrackers!

I’ve recently made the switch to 1×10 (32t – 11-36 cassette)

I am by noway an unfit rider, the group I ride with all push it on the climbs and I’m usually mid pack, with only 1 or 2 of them using 1×10. The rest 2×10.

Any advice from people who have gone from 2×10 to 1×10, whether it be training related or technique etc. I’ve found that I have had to get out of the seat a bit more on longer climbs to work different muscles.

I’m a lightish rider at 75kg with kit.

Keep on standing up more. And bear in mind that you both stand and sit with your hips in different positions fore-aft so you engage different muscle groups. If you’re going up something properly steep don’t get stuck behind someone using the granny gears or you’ll run out of low rev oomph.

think you have to do whatever works.

Personally, I’ve never got on with granny rings. I find sitting and twiddling a low gear really difficult. The occasions I did need a granny ring walking was quicker so I tended to go with that.

All my mtb’s are single ring now – 34/32 on 26 and 29er is what I run or 32:17 on my SS.

tbh, I think you just have to do the ‘shut up legs’ thing sometimes and keep pedalling. Most of my climbing is stood up on the SS on the others I’ll stand for technical bits as I find it easier to balance power and traction that way.

[edit] I’d second not gettign stuck behind riders who sit and spin – you need to attack hills.

I think you just kind of get used to it too. I find that momentum is your friend and getting stuck behind someone spinning will stop you in your tracks.

Swapping between standing and sitting helps. I’ve surprised myself at some of the stuff I’ve ridden up and I’m no athlete!

Yeah I’m kind of thinking that I’m going to have a couple of weeks/months where I have to do the hard work and hopefully it will become second nature. I’ve also found momentum to be key on more technical climbs. I do think who have to use different climbing techniques, where as before I would sit down and just grind out a climb in the granny ring, I’m now finding that the amount of low rpm power I have to put down I soon burn out. Hence standing more.

I’ve found that I have had to get out of the seat a bit more on longer climbs

Try fitting a 30 instead of the 32? How often do you use the 32×11?

(FWIW, I have a 34 with 11-36 on 29er but despite being a spinner and pretty unfit these days, I can push gears if I need to)

Ive had to go 30t and I do spin out a bit, but its very rare Im on fast enough descents (off road)

30t is enough for me to climb anything it seems, done Afan, BPW, Llandegla and Ive got up the lot, even if its been tough in places!

also a recent convert. had a cou[ple of local spins then went to Gisburn on Sunday and absolutely loved it. felt i had the power to pedal full pelt all the way round. However the thought of a proper climb, round Hebden say, is still pretty terrifying!

I found it made me faster/fitter as you can’t just slowly grind out a climb. Also +1 to getting out the saddle more, I never really rode out the saddle when climbing when I had a granny ring.

Try fitting a 30 instead of the 32? How often do you use the 32×11?

I had thought of this but I do like the gravity side of riding and often wish ai had another gear to drop dwn into. I run a 38 on the dh bike.

Stick with the 32 and just ride as much as you can. If you can manage a 32 (or bigger) then it seems daft to drop a size when you can just push yourself a bit more.

also a recent convert. had a cou[ple of local spins then went to Gisburn on Sunday and absolutely loved it. felt i had the power to pedal full pelt all the way round. However the thought of a proper climb, round Hebden say, is still pretty terrifying!

Pretty much exactly this, I’m confident I could do any trail centre climbs etc, its the big days out where I’m in two minds and don’t want it to ruin a ride for me and the people I’m with.

Run a single speed for a few months and returning to ten gears will feel like cheating 🙂

Think Nortwind made a good call of fitting a 22t and putting the chain on by hand at the bottom of a really steep climb. Noisy but potentially effective.

Oldskooler – I thought the same but managed fine in the Dales on some bog climbs over two days (although the second was harder than the first due to wind and tired legs).

You do get used to it pretty quickly and learn to approach climbs in a way to suit.

I only changed to 1×10 when I was confident that it wouldn’t impact my riding style. Wouldn’t bother otherwise.

I’ve been riding 2×9 for a while now with a 36t middle ring since I took the top off to replace with a bash guard for the Alps. Found I haven’t used the granny ring since, so just bought a narrow/wide single ring and going to convert to 1×10 this week.

As a lot of others have said, standing up and moving my weight slightly to maintain traction works for me, plus a little sit down for a rest when the incline allows 🙂

How about the issue of grip with standing up on big hills ?

My mind seems to be more at rest now, think the only thing to do is get out and ride more. There’s a couple of local climbs tha I want to try ad these will be the testers! If I can get up them I can get up anything type climbs.

I’ve had no issue with grip standing up on the hills, you just have to be smooth with the power delivery, keeping the torque as consistent as possible.

I’m just trying to think back to how often I used to be in my easiest gear and It wasn’t that often, If I was in my granny ring I was usually half way through the cassette at the back.

I’ve run 1×10 plenty, I always think “why would I ever need more gears”

Then you do something like the Maxx Exposure SDW ride…. realising that half way up Ditchling beacon you REALLY need another gear… or you legs may fall off.

Last week on an event I really regretted not having an extra gear on the Spearfish… maybe some lighter wheels/rubber would have been enough… not sure.

I’m keeping the new AM29 as 2×10…. just in case.

How about the issue of grip with standing up on big hills ?

That happens when you stand forwards leaning way over the bars instead of standing up. I think you can manage rear tyre grip vs front wheel lifting much better standing than sitting, with practice.

As Weeksy says, I reckon it’s more about the length/amount of climbing than the absolute steepness. I’m still undecided whether to use 1×10 for my new “riding in Greece bike” or keep the granny and front mech.
The short really steep climbs won’t be the problem, it’ll be towards the end of the long 1500 metre climbs where I’ll suffer with 1×10.

I still reckon that I’ll go the 1×10 route though, even if it is 30T chainring and One-Up 42T sprocket…..

“How about the issue of grip with standing up on big hills ?”

like how it really isnt an issue ?

for those who’ve gone to 2x or 1x don’t you miss the big ring?

I suppose some of you have several bikes for different uses but I only have 3, a road, a rigid hybrid for taking the little girl on the back of and my do it all everything mtb. The mtb rides I do (unless doing a trail centre like Cannock) almost always involve some road descents and one of the things putting me off taking off the big ring is that I like to cycle as fast as possible and just running a 32 or 34 tooth ring I’ll run out of gears thinking ‘I could be going a hell of a lot faster with my 44t on’

you have to ask why you’re taking the big ring off really.

Ground clearance?
Weight?
Fashion?

tbh, if you’re happy with how your bike rides now and don’t have nay issues with catching logs etc with the outer chainring then why change if you’ll just be missing it?

Fast road descents = you’ve planned your route wrong, though in my opinion 😉

jekkyl – Member
for those who’ve gone to 2x or 1x don’t you miss the big ring?

Simple answer, no. I went to a double, found that I didn’t really need the granny ring so went to a single. It removes a shifter and other bits I don’t really need from the bike and for me and what I ride, doesn’t reduce the function of the bike.

@ Andy R – if you already have a double fitted, why bother taking it off to go 1×10?

Fashion?

I’d run it like that until it all wears out! ‘swhat I’m doing with my triples 🙂

100% with you on planning the wrong route if it has fast road descents!

Weight and ease of maintence/less things to go wrong, are the main reasons. Ground clearance hasn’t been an issue, juts use the bash guard for that!

i used to use the big ring to tension the chain on bouncy decents…..

so when i removed it i whipped out all the extra chain – now its tight on the middle ring.

22:34 on my trail bike. never missed the big ring.

for those who’ve gone to 2x or 1x don’t you miss the big ring?

Occasionally, but not enough to bother me. Like others I always try and avoid fast road descents, who wouldn’t!?

XX1 on the new bike anyway, so hopefully that’ll negate some of those downsides.

Just wondering… HT or FS?

Find the single ring works better for me on the HT where I’m out the saddle a lot on climbs anyway, so pushing a big gear isn’t so much of a problem. On the FS I don’t like getting in and out the saddle as much as it tends to climb better seated, so spinning a smaller gear works better.

All good advice though, if I’m 1×10 on a HT and following someone on a FS with a double, sometimes you’ll need to carry more speed and getting stalled without a bail out gear is a right pain.

for those who’ve gone to 2x or 1x don’t you miss the big ring?

It’s horses for courses. If I only had one do it all bike that really needed a massive spread of gears all the time then I may well stick 3x on there. However I’ve got a few bikes and have different gearing on each but don’t need the massive spread, so mostly for trail and xc race 1×10 is fine for me (do sometimes change chainrings for different sizes depending on where I’m riding though.)

FS, I’ll have to see how it goes climbing in a tight pack over more technical stuff. Should be fine though, most of our steeper/longer climbs tend to be on road/fire road so loss of traction isn’t a problem out of the saddle.

First thing I’ve noticed not running a guide as I’m using narrow/wide is how much smoother the bike feels, it walready feels like I’ve got more gears!

I changed to 1×10 about 8 months ago with a 32 11:36 combo. To be honest it was a day before I was embarking on the c2c. I wish I had done it sooner, much more consistent with my climbing in keeping speed and cadence.

I found it hard using 1×10 at first but a winter of single speed riding last year meant that when I got back on the geared bike it felt like I could pedal up anything!

come to think of it – isn’t this just fashion coming round again 😀 – my ironhorse flagstaff in 1999 had a 44 x 11:32 on with a dmr speed guide – used to do my paper round on that gear – maybe that’s why I don’t mind SS 😀

Mary Hinge – Member 
@ Andy R – if you already have a double fitted, why bother taking it off to go 1×10?

Fashion?

I don’t have anything fitted at the minute, I’m building it from scratch. I do, however, have a bike out there that is set-up 1×9 with an 11-34 cassette and 22/32 chainrings and it’s not often I use the granny on that but it does come in handy once in a while.
On the other hand, I’m no stranger to riding singlespeeds either so I’m not averse to a fair bit of out of the saddle climbing.
I’m not fussed about fashion – if I was I wouldn’t be building another 26″ wheel bike..

Mine wasn’t led by fashion.

I’ve run single ring set ups for a while. Also when I was building my SX up after having not had a bike for a while I was using as many parts as I had lying around which included a Blackspire chain device and an old X9 mech. When I decided to go 10 speed it was cheaper to only buy one shifter. I also only had to buy one chainring too! It did nearly kill me the first time I used it but the bike was also a ‘healthy’ 37lbs.

30t is enough for me to climb anything it seems, done Afan, BPW, Llandegla and Ive got up the lot, even if its been tough in places!

AFAIK there is no where at Afan where you need a granny anyway?

Only one of the guys I ride with is running a single-ring upfront, and he’s the youngest and fittest – no way would I want to be without the ability to have that get-outta-jail gear for a long day out, at least not round here.

tbh they are the only 3 places Ive ridden since i got it, well that and swinley and that certainly doesnt require a granny ring!

actually im sure that at least some of the climbs on W2 wouldve had me dropping down, but im quite unfit

I live in a pretty mountainous area (west of Madrid), and there are very few climbs where I actually need to use the granny ring – and even there you’d be just as fast walking (although that always seems like cheating!)

Losing the big ring would be more of a pain, it’s handy on the downhills and flats.