I have ordered a PX Tempest, now; I was wanting to get it as a double but that is a bit spendy for one chainring and some shifter internals. So, I have a hydo 105 double groupset on my road bike, my question is this; I want the Tempest for the landy tracks here but I also want to ride it on the road a bit with different tyres, Will 1x leave me cursing or will I just grow smarter with gear shifts? Road rides usually anything between 30-60 miles depending on motivation/cake intake. To be honest I would like it to be a bike to replace both road and my hardtail (which really only goes bivvying/camping.) Cheers.

I have a 2x on my gravel after I convinced myself that 1x was not the way to go. I don’t regret it all – I love 1x on my MTBs, but for anything with more constant pedalling I’d really not want ratios any further apart than on my 2x with an 11-32, but need the range that a 2x gets me on that cassette because puny legs and lard intake.

I have a tempest (amazing bike), which started as sram 1x and is now 2×11 grx. 1x was fine to be honest, but I do prefer the new setup.

I currently ride with a 3×9 setup 11-34 30,39,50. I’m experimenting with the idea of 1x simply by avoiding the big ring and the granny ring.

What I have noticed is that more often than not, I’m riding in a gear of between 1:1.5 and 1:2. That puts me nicely in the middle of the cassette with the middle ring.

If I compare that it a 2x system 11-34 with 31,48 chainrings, it looks like most of my riding would be at the cross over point between the two chainrings.

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like I’d be better off with 1x rather than every second on third shift needing a front shift to go with it.

Depends on your riding style. If you are head down arse up kind of rider and riding in groups you will want a 2x. If you ride solo and are happy to go at your own pace then 1x is fine.

1x on the mountain bike, 2x (subcompact) on the gravel bike. I find gravel rides tend to be faster than MTB rides, and 2x gets me the right/gear cadence, with smaller gaps between them. On the MTB I ride slower and I’m happy for cadence and gearing to govern speed, not the other way around.

Traileagger is correct

2x for me but mainly because I want the range without massive gaps. The gravel bike does everything from steep climbs up mountain tracks to hammering along A roads. So a GRX 31×48 chainset paired to an 11-40 XT cassette gives me a 563% range with manageable gaps.

Also consider if you are going to be carrying luggage and the distances you’ll be covering. A wider range can make uphill load lugging easier and still give you a decent speed for any longer tarmac segments.

I’m currently 50/34, 11-40 but I’m likely to reduce the front to 48/32 or 46/30 when the rings wear. Some will say that it’s difficult to spin out on the smaller rings anyway but we don’t all have a comfortable cadence in excess of 80 rpm.

Depends how sensitive you are to cadence changes. I’ve ridden mtbs since the late 80’s with 3×5 and was used to big cassette jumps. When I had a good road bike I used to find I changed 2-3 gears at a time as the difference between one was barely noticeable. My 1x gravel bike has a wider range than my 2x winter road bike with an 11-28 cassette and one gear change actually makes a difference. May well help that being Force 1 it has the same spacing as my mtbs (even the 12spd minus the 50).

Have done rides with others on road bikes, but only 3-4 riders on chill rides. Could be different in a chain gang but unlikely you’re considering a gravel as an only bike if you’re into that kind of thing.

If you are head down arse up kind of rider and riding in groups you will want a 2x. If you ride solo and are happy to go at your own pace then 1x is fine.

Kind of agree since group rides on road was where 1x felt least effective to me, but I generally don’t ride head down or in bunches and I still prefer 2x.

The main advantage of 1x is chain retention (and perhaps some clearance gains) and that’s something I don’t need on a gravel bike. Yes a churned byway can be rough and I’m not always a pootler but still, I just don’t have a problem with dropped chains. A clutch 2x mech is plenty. Since I don’t need the retention levels of 1x I go for more adaptable gear ranges/choices and the cheaper mechs and cassettes of 2x, works for the longer distances and subsequent wear rates that the gravel bike sees (though I do hear good reports on 12s cassette life).

2x for versatility definitely.

I’ve been 1x for most of the winter, 38 x 11-40. It has been mostly great, but for longer more explorative gravel rides I miss the range of the 2x setup.

I’m a bit phobic of massive cassettes as well, I guess you could go 1x with a massive cassette but in my experience shifting gets worse/more sensitive to setup with bigger cassettes.

That being said, the worst thing about 2x is Shimano’s new front mechs, they seem awfully fickle! If you can go 2x without using GRX cranks and buy an older style shimano front mech then that would be the best of both worlds.

If I compare that it a 2x system 11-34 with 31,48 chainrings, it looks like most of my riding would be at the cross over point between the two chainrings.

I think you’re right to be honest, although I do use most of the range of my 2x setup, I do seem to use the front shifter an awful lot (although I dislike running the chain crossed over, I really don’t like being in the big ring and biggest two or three sprockets).

I think sub-compact 46/30 is the way to go.

I also agree with Roverpig/Scotroutes, my ideal setup would maybe be 36/40 and an 11-36 or 11-38 cassette, but since they’re thin on the ground I might just go 2x for summer and keep my 11-40 cassette on.

1x on the mountain bike, 2x (subcompact) on the gravel bike. I find gravel rides tend to be faster than MTB rides, and 2x gets me the right/gear cadence, with smaller gaps between them. On the MTB I ride slower and I’m happy for cadence and gearing to govern speed, not the other way around.

+1

It’s not so much the range as the cadence that annoys me. Standing up to mash my way up a hill feels fine, tucking to wizz down a lane at 30mph rather than 32 is also fine. Getting stuck between two gears on a fast smooth section is just infuriating.

Whereas on the MTB (for reasonably technical riding anyway) 1×12 annoys me for the opposite reason, there’s rarely time between features to find the right gear. On the singlspeed you kinda get used to when the gear is useable (maybe even 90% of the time), 12s you come out of a corner, pedal, nothing, shift 3 gears, pedal, next corners on your already. I like the evenly spaced low gears but I dont think I’d miss the <16t sprockets all that much. Which conveniently makes the range 314%, roughly the same as an 11-34 cassette. I’m tempted to pick up a 2nd rear wheel, 11-36 cassette and 24t chainring (not sure that exists though) and try it out.

Thanks everybody,definately going with the 2×11 then and will have to suffer the the pain of swapping them over before I ride my shiny new toy.

I don’t ride gears but every time I think about it I find myself looking at cassettes that are
11-12-13-14-15-16-17-19-21-23-25 and with a single ring on the front that would be perfect for me. I have no need for wide spaced dinner plate sized cassettes.

2x on mine (34/48) which was quite a specific set-up for a purpose. However the bike has now morphed into a do-it-all winter road bike, gravel/CX bike and actually it’s perfect.

I like being able to quickly get to a lower gear simply by dropping from big ring to small without the need to shift up 6+ cogs at the back – it’s handy for going from road to gravel. Since the vast majority of my riding is mixed use of normal roads and trails, having the reasonable range of higher gears for road use is good.

Late to the party but I like 1x on my cross/road/gravel/whatever bike (10-42 cassette). It has the range I need almost all of the time.

It’s very much a personal choice though. I found closer ratio cassettes annoying and was constantly changing multiple gears. When I could get a sensible gear range with my preference for gear steps, and that happened to be 1x, I went for it (The fact I like the looks is a happy benefit). If I was riding in close groups on road all the time I might change my tune.

Setup- I do have two chainrings (38 and 42) which might get swapped depending on what I’ve got planned for the next few months (mostly road vs lots of off road) but that’s less faff than swapping tyres at the same time and it rarely bother me to have the ‘wrong’ one. I should probably stick a 40 on there and forget about it when they wear out…

1x on my gravel bike, but I wouldn’t want it on my road bike. I want much lower gears on my gravel bike 40/11-46 vs 50-34/11-28 and I find my 11-46 Sunrace cassette has some annoying gaps at normal road speeds.

Plus, 1x is always annoyingly noisy in lower gears.

If the Tempest is 1x SRAM, you can probably pick up the bits to make it 2x for very little as loads of people go the other way. I’ve got various bits from my CX bike, although annoyingly I lost a small bit of the shifter internals.

Most of my rides during this last lockdown have been on my (not being used to) commute bike; a Croix de Fer with 1x (40T) and a 11-32 cassette, 32mm road tyres mudguards rack etc (ie a heavy beast). For road riding solo and the sort of distance the OP is talking about the gearing has been fine. Might spin out once or twice on fast descents (just tuck in) and use the 32 a couple of times as well on the short sharp hills around here (Hampshire & South Downs area). Riding solo I haven’t had any issues with big jumps between ratios, now that we can ride in groups again and the weather is improving I will probably revert to my road bike but mostly because its a couple of kg lighter than the CdF.
For off road use this 40-32 wouldn’t be low enough and I would want to at least swap the cassette for something with a bigger range. Is that an option for you? When you want to go off road swap the cassette as well.
For mixed road and gravel riding a 2x does still seem best to me. To the extent that I have a new bike on order: Enigma Escape with GRX 2x. Looked at the Campag Ekta 13spd as a possible option but expensive and would have much preferred if they had used the extra cogs to fill in the gaps rather than go for a 9 & 10.

If the Tempest is 1x SRAM, you can probably pick up the bits to make it 2x for very little as loads of people go the other way. I’ve got various bits from my CX bike, although annoyingly I lost a small bit of the shifter internals.

Now thats interesting.

I’ll check what I’ve actually got. I’ve definitely got a spider + chain rings. I can’t now remember what bit it was that I lost from the shifter internals. It might have been a circlip, in which case I might now have a replacement.

I’ve got SRAM Apex 1 on my Sonder Camino – 40T chainring and a 11-42 cassette.  It’s a good allrounder but I find that I’m under-geared on fast road sections and over-geared on steep lumpy bridleways (a dodgy knee doesn’t help). It’s a compromise. My next bike will be a GRX 2x

kerley
Free Member
I don’t ride gears but every time I think about it I find myself looking at cassettes that are
11-12-13-14-15-16-17-19-21-23-25 and with a single ring on the front that would be perfect for me. I have no need for wide spaced dinner plate sized cassettes

My application is similar to what the OP describes. Road rides up to c.60 miles and some local off road. No luggage. This bike lives in a pretty flat part of the country though. It’s currently singlespeed 42:18 in which just about everything it does is just about doable but the sharper tarmac climbs even in Northants have to be attacked. That said, I just don’t see it as a “sit and spin” kind of bike, so I’m happy mashing.

Also, I’m interested in the option of a dropper and using the LH shifter for that seems a far neater solution than any other. And going 1x would avoid a crankset purchase.

So I’m thinking about fitting gears but it’s mostly to add much higher gears for longer road rides and to give me the option of riding with a group, but not a fast one. I reckon I could get away with 1x without a huge cassette. So probably in the same camp as Kerley albeit maybe a slightly wider range cassette. But that’s because of where I am. If we had hills I’d be thinking differently.

All that said, the current market for bike parts has put all this firmly on the back burner for me.

I enjoy the off road bits more on my gravel bike so geared it for that but I find 40×11-51 is plenty fast enough for me on the tarmac bits between trails

1×10 for me (38×11-36) but I’d agree if you want a bit more versatility and/or to use it as more of a road bike/tourer 2x makes sense, especially a sub-compact. My Gravel bike is more of a Local on/off-road Hack machine.

I chose 1x for minimal maintenance, having fewer components to set up (queue someone whinging about the demise of front mech setup skillz), mud clearance and just general convenience.

My Summer Road bike is 2x and while I’ve mulled going 1x on that too, I don’t think I will as the available options don’t quite match up to what I want that bike to do…

Winter/Commuter Roadie is 1×9 (42×11:34) with friction shifting, purely for extra cheapness and simplicity.

i like 1x.. im used to it.. and means parts are more swappable between my mtbs…
44 x 10-42 covers me, i dont feel there’s a hill i can’t tackle..
i generally dont feel massively happy about 30+mph on the road either but its still a sensible cadence downhill at those speeds
if i dont like the ratio ill gladly take the next nearest.. or alternate between, im not riding in groups at continuous pace

(queue someone whinging about the demise of front mech setup skillz)

Newer Shimano mechs require more luck than skill anyway, it’s as if they wanted to prove the 1x-ers point for them! I can’t even get the 105 mech on my road bike working properly across the range…

My Tempest started as Ultegra 34/50 and 11-34, which was overgeared for off road and ageing legs.

It’s now GRX 30/46 with an 11-40 on the back. I mostly leave it on the inner ring when off road and lugging bags. Outer ring for chattery descents and road riding.

Perfect for me.

Newer Shimano mechs require more luck than skill anyway, it’s as if they wanted to prove the 1x-ers point for them! I can’t even get the 105 mech on my road bike working properly across the range…

Don’t the latest ones just have a little indicator that you line up and it’s done?

I don’t ride gears but every time I think about it I find myself looking at cassettes that are
11-12-13-14-15-16-17-19-21-23-25

Well 30odd years ago when 6 speed cassette was fairly normal I rode 52/42 (didn’t we all?) with 11-21 or 11-24. There is no way I could get up anything remotely like a climb on those sort of gears now, even on the road. Definitely not on gravel.

For those using 2x and 11-40, what rear mech suits, GRX? At my age and lack of strength I could quite fancy having 30×40 available.

Newer Shimano mechs require more luck than skill anyway,

I had to follow the instructions carefully first time I came across one. I can’t say I’ve had any subsequent problems, and that includes the 105 on my own #gradventourer.

 2x and 11-40, what rear mech suits,

I’m using the Ultegra RX (for the clutch). A standard Ultegra worked too but there seemed to be a bit too much chain slap.

Yes Ultegra RX for me too.

I swapped the 105 front mech and chainset for a GRX one (to lower the gearing a bit) so had to deal with the modern generation front mech. It was the first one where I’ve actually had to read the instructions (and watch a few videos in advance). Maybe I did just get lucky, but I found the setup quite straightforward in the end. Having the little sticker to get the height right and the adjuster for the cable tension with a mark to show you when it was right seemed quite neat. The mark is just a guide though. Nothing wrong with adjusting it to get it all running sweetly as far as I could see.

Did KAW on 1x and found myself lacking gears compared to friend on 2x. Local rides and it’s no different, so bags and long days and I’ll be 2x

I keep looking at getting a bike through the bike to work scheme. Not sure I need or want a full on gravel bike, but something with larger tyres than my road bike to cope with the awful roads round here, as well as heading down some bridleways when the mood takes me.

A lot of ‘gravel’ bikes seem to be set-up 1x, but I hate feeling like I’m in the wrong gear which I think I would feel if I went 1x.
I reckon if I do get one, it’ll be 2x. I keep looking at the Spesh Diverge Elite E5, but with stock the way it is I’ll probably put this idea on the backburner until next year.

I have a Diverge with 1x and I’ve just ordered a 38 chainring for longer days in the saddle, but it would be seriously over-geared for multi-day/laden adventures. I’ll probably wait until next year given the scarcity of parts to upgrade to 2x and kid myself I’m 10 years younger.

I use my ‘gravel’ bike probably 80% road, 20% gravel (or mud)

I had a 1x Pinnacle Arkose which was a great bike but the gaps between the cogs was just getting annoying for road riding.

Changed to a Checkpoint with 2 x 46/30 and 11/34 at the back and it’s best of both worlds imo.

Gets up anything with the low gear but is nice to ride on the road without big cadence jumps.

Not sure I need or want a full on gravel bike, but something with larger tyres than my road bike to cope with the awful roads round here

Despite owning one I couldn’t tell what a gravel bike actually is but there are plenty at the racier end of the spectrum that do just seem to be road bikes with clearance for larger tyres.

Trailwagger +1

It’s all up to you and what you’re doing really,  my preference is 1x and I have the option of 2x if I ever want it, but dont. So 1x it is.

Cant say as I’d want 1x on a road bike mind you.

If the the bike is a do it all road, gravel, touring etc a double is good mines has a 48:32 on front with 32 11 at back I think. If it’s a more focussed off-road bike a single may be better, but then front mechs never cause me an issue tbh so why not have one?