Originally Posted by
boomhauer
If you can get the range you want out of a 1x12 I don't think it is marketing hype at all. Life without a front derailleur is an improvement.
Yes and no. Touring / bikepacking with a mountain bike in challenging terrain or even on dirt roads, definitely.
For road touring I prefer a double or perhaps in the future again even a triple as the 12 speed wide cassette gives gear jumps that in my opinion are just too large for pure road touring. This of course with the assumption that the gearing is wide enough to provide a proper low gear for steep hills. A tight 12-speed cassette would of course not have this issue, but you'd either limit your low gearing or max speed severely. With a 1x11 I always got the feeling that I'm never in quite the correct gear and with my current 1x12 bikes the feeling isn't much different. Though I'll admit that I have only toured with a 1x11 but own two 1x12 bikes one of which is for road use and one is four mountain biking.