Originally Posted by
Maelochs
I hate to disagree with engineers or mathematicians or whatever .... but speak for yourself.
My Cannondale Rize has a 3x8 Deore/SLX drivetrain and I like riding it off-road very much.
I would be fine with a solid 1x12 perhaps ... and if you are buying, I will install it and test it. But every MTB I have owned has been a triple, and I rode and enjoyed riding each of them off-road.
Nothing wrong with those 42 or 50 or whatever-toothed pie-plate cogs ... I am sure they weigh less than one would think a giant metal disc would weigh ...balancing out the weight saved by having a front chain-catcher instead of a derailleur ..... But this is another of those "Don't gear up like the pros if you don't ride like the pros" situation.
Some bikes are designed to be ridden swiftly over several laps of a specific course and are great for that. I'd prefer (were I fit enough) to ride for several hours at a variety of paces, and as with long road rides ... I have never found myself disappointed to find the perfect ratio, but have occasionally been disappointed when I could not.
In any case .... the problem with generalities is specifics.
I don't know how old your Cannondale Rize is, but if you have a look at the spec of current Cannondale mountain bikes you will see only 1x drivetrains on all but the very lowest spec models, which are 2x. It's not just pro level bikes that are now 1x. It's everything above the lowest tier. You would be hard pushed to find any new mid range mountain bike with 3x drivetrain. I also had a quick look at Giant's website and again not a single 3x offering in their vast mountain bike range.
So if you are ever again in the market for a new mountain bike you are going to be faced with 1x12 drivetrains unless you go very low end indeed. That’s exactly how I ended up there myself, but not complaining. My 2015 Specialized Enduro was my first 1x mtb (1x11 SRAM X01) and my 2019 Canyon Neuron is 1x12 X01. Everything before that was 3x Shimano XT or SRAM X9. I never used the big ring on singletrack, so always fitted a bash ring instead.