Originally Posted by
msu2001la
I'm surprised no one has mentioned tire clearance (or maybe I missed it). On some gravel/cx frames, the FD is a factor and 1x provides more clearance than 2x. Also worth noting that 1x setups can use a narrow-wide chainring, which helps with chain retention - particularly when combined with a clutched RD.
I like 1x and use it on both my CX and gravel bikes, which also do double duty as road bikes. I live in a flat area and don't need climbing gears, so I can run fairly narrow range cassettes (11-32 is plenty, I also use 11-34).
For me, it's more that I just don't really need 2x. On my 2x road bikes I almost never used the small ring. The large ring on a compact crankset plus an 11-25 or 11-28 road cassette basically meant I used the big ring for 90% of my riding, so why not ditch the FD and extra chain ring, use an 11-32 or 11-34 instead? The fact that the 1x provides better mud clearance, chain retention and frees up some space on my frame is just added bonus.
Don't get me wrong, if I lived in a mountainous area, I'd definitely want 2x on both road and gravel bikes. For flatland riding though... 1x is great.
I'm in a similar boat. My area has some short hills, but on the road bike I am very rarely in my small ring. My CX bike is 1X with a 11-32 cassette. I had been using it on gravel and was fine 95% of the time but did want a bigger bailout gear. I just got a new gravel bike with XPLR on it; the bottom half is pretty closely spaced. The only big jumps come at the top. When I need the bailout, I don't mind the big jump.
Originally Posted by
scottfsmith
I don't think anyone above is talking about the close ratio you are referring to. The 'close ratio' is even if the front derallieur is not moving. If you only have 11 gears going from 11-42 vs 11-30 you will have closer gears on the latter. Here is a Shimano 11-42: 11-13-15-17-19-21-24-28-32-37-42. Here is an 11-30: 11-12-13-14-15-17-19-21-24-27-30T. Now lets compute the tooth difference in each shift on these. 11-42: 2-2-2-2-2-3-4-4-5-6. OK now for the 11-30: 1-1-1-1-2-2-2-3-3-3. Now comparing the two you can see that on almost half the gears the 11-42 has double the gap on a single-gear shift compared to the 11-30.
I re
ally think it depends on the use case. I have 42t chainring with a 10-44 cassette that looks like this: 10,11,13,15,17,19,21,24,28,32,38,44. The 42-10 is big enough for the occasional group ride on the road (I use the gravel bike for commuting - occasionally hop in a pre-work group ride with it), and I can manage my cadence pretty well at speed and in races. Yeah, the bailout jumps are big, but when I need the 38, I don't mind so much. If I were in a hillier region, I may feel differently.
In short, I don't think there is one answer for everyone. A lot of people will benefit from and prefer 2x. That's fine! Many of us prefer 1x on gravel and that's fine too. I'll stick with 2x on the road for the time being.