Originally Posted by
Ollie62
Lots of good advice it seems that changing to a chainring more suited to a gravel bike might be a good upgrade (48/32 or 46/30). What would be the idea size cassette if I was to upgrade the chainring, also would i need to change my chain ? Also what does changing to a 1x11 crankset achieve and if I was to go that route what size cassette/chainring would work best. Thank you !
Yes, as a first stage chain rim is the "simplest" thing to do and possibly shorten the chain.
Cassette, as Eric said, he managed to fit a 11-42 despite 34 being the approved max and it works for him.
If I were you, I would do a search to see what is the most common "out of spec" setup. On my daugther bike, I went for a 11-36 9s instead of a 11-32 8s although the derailleur was speced for 34 so the risk of not working was rather low. On my gravel, the derailleur is speced for 42max but some people manage to get 11-50 MTB cassette to work and some don't. I found that for my setup, most people achieve 11-46 without any trouble so I thought is was an acceptable risk and upgraded for 11-46T (inexpensive) on 700c and after several successful month I upgrade the 650B with XD to 9-46T (expensive).
Point is that you have currently max the approved validated cassette setup but it doesn't mean you cannot go over as manufacturers include some safety factor. if you go over the specified cassette, they is a risk it doesn't work and will cost money to put right so do your research.
Now, 2x or 1x, as mentioned above, it is a personal choice we cannot make for you however, there are thing you can do to decide:
Before being with a 1x, I rode mostly a modified folding bike with 2x9. When I was debating on 1x, I simply went for a ride, I recorded what gear I used and like (as I did when upgrading from 2x7 to 2x9). Once I knew what I likes, I set-up a XL file with the gearinch and spent time comparing data [Tyre Dia x(chainring/cassette)] and compare the 20" gearinch to the 700c gearinch to find that it would work for me as a initial purchase.
Then, I repeated the process to find out how chainring swap would affect the gearinch and swapped accordingly... and same again with the cassette.
Did the same when building the "work horse" - bike I use to tow the kids tag along and child seat.
By comparing the gearinch, I could see how groupset vary and I see what compromise I would have to make (easy the top and overspinning downhill). It also allowed me to see how my groupset would compare to other people groupset and see if I were over or under geared.
As I said, it is personal but you can look at the data to make a better educated choice.