Today I went back to 2×10.

It’s just better than 1×10.

It’s a bit heavier, but it means I can have a set of gears that will work fine around Cambridgeshire this week, and will also work in the Alps the week after next, without having to mess around swapping over chainrings.

32/26, and 11-42. I couldn’t be bothered to take off the 42, but it’s probably unusable in practice. The 26t is actually a narrow-wide oval – it works really well as a granny ring.

To all the people I may have mocked in the past for their luddite insistence on sticking with a front mech: sorry, I was wrong.

And as for those 10-50t cassettes: seriously? 10t? 50t?

It’s OK mate – you’re just ahead of the next trend.

2×9 is the sweetspot. 😉

I don’t think there is any single one solution for everyone.

If 2x works for you then that’s what matters. 😀

I went back to 2×11 on two of my bikes yet to put a front mech on yet 🙂

Your new 2×10 gears have less range than 1x with a 10-50 cassette.

Ssshhhhh they don’t like big cassettes.
Gx eagle does look good

I can put a 34t chainring on at the front, and be the same. It will cost me about £10. I used a 32t because that’s what I had lying around.

Whereas going to SRAM Eagle is going to set me back the price of a kidney.

What’s the efficiency like of one of those 12 speed setups when you’re in the big 50t sprocket?

Probably absolutely fine and nothing you would notice. Kidneys must be going cheap round your way 😉

I get them from the butcher’s down the road. Steak and Kidney pie, mmmm!

I expect you to have some trouble running a narrow wide chainring on a double set up . The chain will not always go straight back onto the chainring with the narrow wide chain links corresponding to the narrow wide chainring .

26-42 – you’ll be going vvvvveeeeeerrrrryyyyyyyyyy slowly

without having to mess around swapping over chainrings

but you have had to fit a load of ugly extra weight which is ok? 🙄

It’s your bike you can do what you want . . . . .

oldnpastit – Member

What’s the efficiency like of one of those 12 speed setups when you’re in the big 50t sprocket?

Excellent- the bigger the ring the more efficient the chain

Speeder – Member

but you have had to fit a load of ugly extra weight which is ok?

GX eagle cassette (you can’t buy it yet but it’s on the way) is claimed 450g (ime SRAM claimed weights are pretty honest). Mech is 290g. But you discard front shifter, cable and mech, a chainring, and teh XD freehubs are generally about 20g lighter.

So let’s say XT- 125g for the shifter, 146g for the mech, somewhere around 40g for the chainring and bolts, something like 50g for the cable. Saving about 380g

And we’re adding cassette and mech weight. Let’s forget about the OP’s 11-42 because it weighs almost exactly as much as the SRAM 10-50- that skews things, it’s a monstrosity. Assume a more sensible cassette, say an 11-32, at 286g. And an XT mech is about 240g. So that’s a saving over the 12-speed of 214g

So that heavy rear cassette? Saves 170 grams.

Had to fit a 40T expander for a guy today, up front was a 36/26 boy was that chain slack at 11:26 & tight at 40:36. Said he needed the low gear though. Must be going somewhere really hilly as it isnt locally

Bought my bike as a 2*10 and immediately converted to 1*11 XT. Not happy with range so I went Sramano with a a GX cassette. Fine for most usage with a 30t. However….
Going to the Pyrenees so have re-fitted the front mech with an SLX all-mountain chainset 22-36, which should give me something like 700% range if I can get the der to suck up all the slack!

I went 2X for recent trip to Andalucia, boy was i glad about that ! The only slight issue i had was at times it was hard getting to drop from the 34T down to the granny, but that’s likely because i was running a 34T N/W ring on it, quick stop at the bottom of the hill, spin cranks and it would drop fine.

The gears were a god-send though on some of the climbs we were hitting.

And as for those 10-50t cassettes: seriously? 10t? 50t?

So, you’re going 26×42 and querying someone who will prob be running 32 or 34×50?.

Oh dear.

Horses for courses – bit like wheel size..

Stage races I go for a 2 x 10 as I like the wide spread of gears.
(38-24 & 11-42)
Shorter XC stuff 1 x 11 as I don’t need the range.
(30 & 11-46)

I prefer to spin more on longer races as I find it saves my slightly knacked knees….(I’m 46)

I’m still stuck in 3×9 land on all my mountain bikes.

I’ve never ridden one, but aren’t these wide range cassettes really ‘gappy’?
I just imagine being ‘in between’ gears a lot of the time….

aren’t these wide range cassettes really ‘gappy’?

No. There’s a fairly pronounced step on SRAM 1×11 as you drop onto the biggest cog IME, but overall it’s not really noticeable. 🙂

It’s just better than 1×10.

but 1×11 is the bomb

It’s just better than 1×10.

Define better. Your better is probably not the same as my better. I’ve done 3×6, 3×9, 3×10, 2×10, 1×10 and now 1×11. I can say with 100% certainty that 1×11 is my bestest, shortly followed by 1×10. I have no doubt whatsoever that 1×12 is even betterer, but not so much so I’m going to ditch perfectly functional kit for it, so when I next need to replace my drivetrain it’ll be 1×12 (or 1×13 or more whatever it is at the time). What I really want is a gearbox that really works. 1x, 2x 3x stuff is all just a making the best out of a pretty flawed fundamental design.

2×9 is the sweetspot.

Its true if you have 2 chain ring you really only need 9 out the back, but I’ve moved to 2×10 as new part arent being produced for 9 speed.

Im thinking about 1 x on the front only because the triple looks old fashioned.
I shall be spending money to have less gears that I will notice and less weight that I won’t.

Don’t worry, triples will back soon. I’m still using one. As you said its horses for courses. Despite what was said above single chain ring set ups are very gappy. Its nearly impossible to avoid a 2t gap but anything else does tend to create a step and thus can play with cadence etc. Depends where you ride I guess and, as I have said before, background and other riding. Old codgers like me were brought up on straight through 5 speed blocks and notice big steps. Same on the road. My 11 speed 12-25 cassette is nicer to use than the 11-32

Maybe my maths is messed up, but I think it’s impossible to get the range I’d want with anything less than a 10-46t cassette.

I’d want the equivalent of 32t/11t at the top end – I stole my next-door neighbour’s KOM with that yesterday on a tiny unnoticed byway (yeah me!).

And at the bottom end I’d want 22t/34t. That’s what I had on a rented Trek (29er) a few weeks back, which was pretty hard going up a long hot 10% climb for an hour, most of which I spent longing for a lower gear. But I’d be OK with that.

A distinct lack of humility in this so-called “humble pie” post…

I thought there was already a great choice of 1x haters threads…? 😉

Don’t worry, triples will back soon

They won’t they really won’t. Neither will 26, elastomer forks and flex stems.

Hmm – I’ve just gone 1×10 (32 & 11-40) on one of my bikes from 2 x 9 (22/32 & 11-32) to see if I like it.

All my other mountain bikes are either 3×9 or 2×9 so will decide what to do once I decide if 1×10 works for me.

A distinct lack of humility in this so-called “humble pie” post…

Strava says I took 58 minutes for the climb. The KOM is just under 26 minutes…

An hour on a 10% slope is pretty unusual (for the UK at least), I wouldn’t base my gearing selection based on an outlier, it’s the tail wagging the dog.

Currently I’m on 32T front with 11-40 on the back (XT cassette with 40T extender), this was fine for the HT550 the other week. I found, even after four days’ riding, that I was rarely in the lowest gear as when things steepened slightly you needed to be able to have a bit of oomph to push through things and you couldn’t do that in 32:40, I would typically be in 32:32. The 40T was used on long easy drags, say 5%.

The only gap I notice is the one due to the 17T sprocket being taken out to allow for the extender. Why would you notice the gaps anyway? It’s like riding in the middle ring and changing gear at the cassette and no-one complains about the gaps there. I read somewhere (Sheldon Brown?) that ratio gaps under 12-15% aren’t really noticeable since that’s within the natural cadence range of most riders.

26-38 and 11-36 2×10 on 650b wheels, go anywhere, do anything. Relatively very cheap.

I like the 1×10 (32t and 11-42) on my Zesty (26″) but I’d not want to winch it up a big hill after a long day riding, it works well for shorter, more fun rides than all day epics for me. But, I have actually chucked the 22t granny ring back on recently (yet to use it) as I’m running a triple crank, without the mech, so if I get really knackered I can manually shift down for big hills.

Choice, innit. For a single, all rounder bike though, I’d go 2x.

An hour on a 10% slope is pretty unusual (for the UK at least), I wouldn’t base my gearing selection based on an outlier, it’s the tail wagging the dog.

I’m taking this bike to the Alps for the Tour de Mont Blanc in two weeks time. Looking at the map, it seems to be 4 days of 10% slopes.

I think my “friend” who persuaded me to do this said 2000m climbing per day, but I’m hoping I misheard him.

EDIT: +1 core.

2000m a day? What are you doing in the afternoons? 😆

TBF if I was doing the mt Blanc tour I’d probably fit the lowest gear I could get away as well. 😆 But as other’s have pointed out hour long 10% climbs are pretty rare.

Afternoons? Why, eating tartiflette and drinking cheap red wine of course!

aren’t these wide range cassettes really ‘gappy’?

I’ve just come from 3×10 (24/32/42 x 11-36) to 1×11 (32 x 11-43 Shimano XT) on a new bike (both 27.5), and I do find the step between gears quite noticeable, but not *too* bad. The gear range is *just about* OK.

My feeling is that for big rides, I’d be happier with 2 or 3×10, as there’s a bit of extra range at each end, and a better choice of gears for long climbs. The 1 x 11 is OK for shortish rides, but I don’t think it’s an improvement. One downside that I haven’t seen mentioned is that these big rear sprockets mean that the rear mech is really close to the ground and more vulnerable to rock/stick damage. The chain line at the extremes of the cassette is an engineering abomination, too (as is a 10T sprocket) – IMHO.

I have a front mech to put on if I decide I need it, but 1×11 is not bad enough to do that yet.

I still like my 2×10 on the full suss. 40/28 with 11-36. Nice range IMO, I’d spin out on just a 32.
The hardtail now runs 1×11. 32 with 11-46. That was et up for bikepacking and it worked well. Will change it to a 34 or 36 for normal riding