Originally Posted by
veganbikes
SRAM going 1x isn't hard to figure, their front derailleurs where never that great and maybe that was down to patents but probably down to SRAM just not really wanting to have a proper FD.
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.