Originally Posted by
tomato coupe
Do we really have to go through the math for every gear ratio? How about the 48/19 and 35/14? They differ by 1%. So, if you're in the 48/19 at 90 RPM and you shift to the 35/14, your cadence will increase to (almost) 91 RPM. Are you honestly going to argue that there is a significant difference between those two gears?
Serious question: have you ever ridden a 2x? Because that’s now how shifting works…or at least that’s now how competent riders shift.
I used to think it was funny when 1x guys would say how using the FD was such a burden and hard thing to do, but this conversation has me thinking that maybe there is a real problem at the root there with understanding mechanical systems.
Similar gears in different ranges are almost irrelevant, because for optimized output, you want the same close ratios in each range. Efficient shifting and optimized output are not achieved by jumping between ranges looking for what you call “significantly different” gears. That’s exactly the opposite of what you should be doing. Rather you should be reading the terrain, assessing your ability, and selecting the gear range which allows you quick access to the ratios which allow you to make the most speed for what you can output across that terrain.
Maybe you don’t do performance road riding, but that’s how it works, it’s why you want as many closely spaced gears as possible given the terrain, and why having the same (or very nearly the same) gear ratios in at some point in each range is essentially both inevitable and irrelevant vis a vis the consideration of 1x as an alternative.
I have 3 1x bikes, and not a ride goes by when I don’t want for more gears. Ditto any of my 2x bikes. My dream is infinitely variable gearing, so until then, the more gears the better, particularly in a couple of ranges so that I don’t have to wait forever between shifts to guide a chain up and down something silly like a 20spd cogset.
The Classified hub is something which makes 1x look feasible for me for road riding, but I can’t lie; the first time I saw it I wondered could it work with a fron derailleur for 4 gear ranges!