Originally Posted by
Gresp15C
Indeed, I've seen a lot of 1x rigs, and ride one myself, but as a casual cyclist, I can actually live with 1x9. I keep telling myself that if I ever get fit enough to run my bike out of gears, I'll reward myself with a bigger ring. Hasn't happened yet.
Maybe 12 years ago I bought 175mm crank arms with 3x for my big box POS. Drilled through the rivets on a drill press, used 1/4-20 to put only the middle chain ring back on. Had no idea 1x drivetrains were a thing.
Never been an epic long distance cyclist, but 1x7 was enough to get from 10th and Gaffey to the Korean Bell and back.
I guess point being I was surprised the middle ring was short enough to go uphill and still tall enough to go fast (for me).
Now I remember I think the big box rear derailer probably only worked well when the front was in the middle anyway and I didn’t know it could be adjusted.
I saw on here another BF member made the big ring a guard by grinding off the teeth and reinstalling. Wish I thought of that.