Originally Posted by
gsa103
Run wider mountain bike tires. Running standard trail pressure on flat ground, I tend to top out at at 35kph. If you're hitting 50 kph, it's because you're going downhill, and you'd probably hit 45 kph without pedaling. Spinning out on a downhill, especially on a mountain bike, doesn't really matter. Low end is definitely an issue with 1x, especially on conversions. I currently have a 22/32 crank with 11-32 9speed cassette. If you're restricted to a 11t cog due to HG hubs, it basically means you need a 50t rear to get a reasonable range. The new Deore 11-51t cassette is basically the ONLY cassette that means that requirement.
According to my math, a 32 ring with a 11-46 cassette would get you an essentially identical range to a 22/32 crank with 11-32 cassette. Exact same high (32/11) and and an indistinguishably close low end.
Here is the difference in the low end:
22 ring / 32 cog = 0.6875
32 ring / 46 cog = 0.6957
That is a difference of about 1.2%, or about an 1/8 or 1/10 of a typical gear change.