As time goes on i am pretty tempted by a xx1 set up. So far all the online reviews seem very positive.

But im pretty stumped as to what front chainring to go for.

I ride all over Scotland from big mountain days to the usual long forest rides.
Would 2 chainrings suit me better? smaller for big climbs and a slightly bigger for general rides?

Cheers, any advice welcome 🙂

I’m using a 30t with mine, gets me up everything and i’m no climber.
I love XX1, its everything i hoped it would be, smooth, quiet and efficient.

I guess it depends on your fitness. I’m of average fitness and run a 1×10. 34t front, 11-36 back. I find it really good. Isn’t XX1 quite expensive?

Totally dependent on how fit you are, where you ride and your bike set-up / wheel size.
I’d want a 32t on a 26″ wheeled bike and a 30t on a 29er for my fitness and riding, but that’s my opinion.
The best bet is to figure out what ratios you currently have and see what range you’d be getting with the XX1. I have a spreadsheet that makes it a bit easier that I can easily e-mail you if you like.

I’m not running XX1, but I am running 1×10 with a 40t General Lee adapter and 30t Wolftooth narrow wide ring, so similar to an XX1 set up. I do most of my riding in the hills around N.E Scotland and so far I haven’t had any problems winching myself up some of the steeper stuff. I’m on a 29er by the way so the gearing will be slightly higher than a 26er. If your fitness is good I reckon you’d be fine with a 32t ring, or maybe go 30t if you fancy having a slightly more spinny climbing gear. I wouldn’t buy two rings to begin with. Just buy one and then see how you get on with it.

My only reservation on XX1/X01 is having to click up through 2 or 3 gears when you round a corner to find a short steep bit of trail, rather than just one click duwn to the granny ring on a 2x set up.

Having said that, I’ve managed on 1×9 before so…..

Cool, im riding a Turner 5 spot with no intention of changing from 26″ so a 32t sounds like a good option.

having the gears to climb is more important than anything else really.

rob, how easy was the set of of the rear mech? also i have a hope bottom bracket, do you know if i can still use it or would i need to change.

Jeelston, yep it is pricey. But i run a crappy car so i can splash on bike bits 🙂

Similarly to Yetiman, I’m running a General Lee with a 42t big sprocket (same as XX1) and I’m running a 32t front on my 26″ bike. It’s just enough at the low end. Coming from 2×10 I did have a few instances of repeatedly checking for a lower gear on some of the real long grinding climbs for a couple of rides but I’ve always managed to get up everything I previously could, it just makes me try a bit harder.

Mactheknife, I run a a crappy car and crappy second hand bike bits !!

I would go back to a triple on my next build. I like the simplicity of the 1×10 but I do miss caning the bike down fire roads. But I do use my bike also for commuting.

rob, i have just checked out the General Lee adapter, i had no idea there was an alternative to XX1 yet.

I might give this a shot first before committing to a full XX1 setup. Ive got a fair bit of reading to do first though 🙂

Hope do a GXP adapter for your BB its what im using.

Rear mech was just like a normal one to set up, set your min and max, then fit cable and adjust tension and distance from mech.