Originally Posted by
cyccommute
I agree that 1x isn’t difficult to figure out...I wasn’t saying otherwise. But 1x has other issues, most specifically a lack of range. You can go fast down hill and struggle to go up hill or you can ride up hill in a good gear and spend a lot of time coasting.
I don’t agree about SRAM front derailers, however. At least not for mountain bikes. From top to bottom of the line, SRAM X series works wonderfully. Same can’t be said for Shimano. Their XTR carbon fiber E-type derailer has to be the most useless expensive derailer around. If you had one, I can see why you wouldn’t want front derailers. Their expensive road and mountain derailers are about the same. When I have Shimano systems, I don’t go above Tiagra for road or above Deore for mountain. And, in mountain, I avoid using bottom swing as much as possible. Oddly enough, SRAM bottom swings work fairly well and are on the same par as SRAM’s top swing.
No my point was that SRAM going almost exclusively 1x wasn't hard to figure not that 1x as a concept is hard to figure.
Maybe their MTB stuff is better for the front. I haven't really had many problems at the front with Shimano now I haven't used the E-type stuff at all personally but their road stuff is fantastic and haven't yet had issues mechanical or Di2. I do know people who have run the modern Shimano MTB stuff and haven't had issues but I have no personal usage as my MTB is 1x11 and a 3x9 vintage set up that I am working on.