Originally Posted by
downtube42
I have a vintage Windsor 2x5 that came with a 50-52 double. The cogs were far apart, so each rear shift was a large jump. The rings being so close, each front shift was asmall jump. So think about how that works: If you're on the big ring and want a small shift up, you shift the ring down and the cog up. If you're on the small ring and want to shift up, just shift the ring up. And so on.
1x and compact double are both sort of the opposite of that. Super simple shifting.
Actually my first 10 speed from the mid 1970's was kind of like that. Switching the two chainrings pretty much staggered the gears on the cassette. Giving me 20 distinct gears. The next bike I bought was a 12 speed...Even better I thought. Ha, The bright engineer that designed the drivetrain pretty much copied each gear except one. Da...so 12 speeds is now 7.
On my new 21 speed bike their are still only 13 distinct gears. But it works out well for my riding anyway.