SRAM Apex 1 chainset woes

A friend has a Whyte gravel bike with an Apex chainset. Its 1x but the smallest front chainring that seems available is a 38t.
He definately needs a smaller front ring and he has an 11-42 at the rear.
What would STW recommend as a replacement chainset that would take something around 32t?
Thanks
Ian

Would it be possible to put on a 46t cassette instead? The gear ratio will be only a bit bigger than what you are looking for.

Why so small? I dropped my apex from 42 to 40 (smallest I could find) and its fine now. A 32 would have me spinning out the 32 x 11 quite quickly on the road.

Is this a 4-arm Apex 1? If so, he’s out of luck. Smallest Sram ring is a 40t (and something laughable like £75 rrp). Although it looks very similar to the Shimano 4-arm pattern I tried one and it wouldn’t go. Ended up just buying a second hand 5-arm crankset

trailwagger

Why so small? I dropped my apex from 42 to 40 (smallest I could find) and its fine now. A 32 would have me spinning out the 32 x 11 quite quickly on the road.

If you read the OP’s post, you’ll see that it’s actually for someone else’s bike, not yours.

oldnpastit

Subscriber
Would it be possible to put on a 46t cassette instead? The gear ratio will be only a bit bigger than what you are looking for.

That’s probably a cheaper option than swapping the crank and ring.

If you read the OP’s post, you’ll see that it’s actually for someone else’s bike, not yours.

And if you read my post you will see that I asked the question… why so small? So why do you feel the need to comment and attempt to make out i`m some sort of moron?

My mate is a new cyclist, he is 17st and we ride in Snowdonia. Despite the 40t and 11-42 rear he really suffers.

He has a mtb that is 32t front and 11-42 rear. He really needs something like that for his gravel bike.

Bizarre, isn’t it.

He has a mtb that is 32t front and 11-42 rear. He really needs something like that for his gravel bike.

Probably the best bet is for him to ride the MTB until he is fitter and stronger, then use the gravel bike.

I might be wrong, but isn’t the spider on apex1 and rival1 cranks a removable direct mount type jobbie that could be exchanged with an MTB direct mount 32t or similar?

Only way to know for sure might be to take it off and check…

Hmmm, a wee bit of googling suggests I may be right or wrong there, looks like SRAM have done forged spiders and DM on apex1 over the last couple of years…

Next option, look for a cheapish DM equivalent chainset?

SX can be had for circa £70 is possible, could that fit?

I wasnt aware if the potential for a removable spider. We checkwd and it as all one piece, so we cant swap that out.
Im guessing he will get a different chainset…thanks all

I have a similar issue, want to go to a 38 chainring but they aren’t available. I contacted Norco, who said that I will need to get a different chainset.
No 46t cassettes for XD either, or I would have tried that.

When I was looking for mtb cranks for 1x I found some truvativ stylo’s for £60 ish with an alloy direct mount 32t chainring on it. Something like that would be a good option with easily changeable chainrings (I think you can get it in gxp or dub depending on what’s on there now) – and it’s pretty light for the money.

No 46t cassettes for XD either, or I would have tried that.

Sure it’s an XD? OP said 11-42, which means non XD. Apex groupset comes with NX cassette which is a standard freehub.

I briefly looked at this when I had a Whyte Gisburn and cookeaa is correct you can remove the spider.

From memory it was either Burgtec or Superstar that sold the correct chainring once the spider was removed. The trick was buying one with the correct offset.

I briefly looked at this when I had a Whyte Gisburn and cookeaa is correct you can remove the spider.

Not on the version on the OP is talking about