SRAM AXS 675% range
#1
Senior Member
Thread Starter
SRAM AXS 675% range
A typical 1x MTB has 520% range. My 2x road bike with a 46/30 crank and 10-36 sram 12 speed cassette has 552% range. By changing to a sram 10-44 cassette with the addition of a Wolf Tooth road link, I now have a 30/44 low gear that's a bit lower than a 36/52 and the range is 675%. The only other tricks are to size the chain to wrap the big ring and next to largest sprocket - a 38T - and use sequential mode to avoid shifting into the big ring and 44T sprocket. To go even further, an extended capacity RD cage from cycleschinook.com with a 2 inch longer chain allows the big/big to be used without the sequential mode. I have that setup on two bikes.
#2
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Jacksonville, FL
Posts: 6,909
Bikes: Trek Domane SLR 7 AXS, Trek CheckPoint SL7 AXS, Trek Emonda ALR AXS, Trek FX 5 Sport
Mentioned: 2 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 777 Post(s)
Liked 1,786 Times
in
1,032 Posts
jeez that is some massive amount of range. Should allow you to climb vertically.
#3
I am potato.
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: Pacific Northwest
Posts: 3,126
Bikes: Only precision built, custom high performance elitist machines of the highest caliber. 🍆
Mentioned: 29 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1795 Post(s)
Liked 1,642 Times
in
940 Posts
What is wrong with a CS-RK3 mated to a 42/11-42 or a 46/11-46 Chainring/cassette combo for 679 or 743% respectively? As long as your biggest cog is no bigger than your chainring, the 1:1 input ratio is respected you bottom out at ~21 gear inches and there is no need to run any component out of spec. Can be done with a $60 XT derailleur and convert your road shifters with a JTek Shiftmate or a Wolf tooth Tanpan. 21-155 gear inches ought to be plenty for most uses.
There is also the perennial favorite of running a Rohloff with a Schlumpf Drive of some variety for 860-somethin'% with ~15-134 gear inches. Or in hybrid style with a double crank set and any ol' derailleur that tickles your fancy.
Sure beats replacing $500 cassettes and proprietary flat top chains with any regularity.
There is also the perennial favorite of running a Rohloff with a Schlumpf Drive of some variety for 860-somethin'% with ~15-134 gear inches. Or in hybrid style with a double crank set and any ol' derailleur that tickles your fancy.
Sure beats replacing $500 cassettes and proprietary flat top chains with any regularity.
Last edited by base2; 11-16-23 at 06:54 PM.
#4
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: Mich
Posts: 7,454
Bikes: RSO E-tire dropper fixie brifter
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 6 Post(s)
Liked 3,018 Times
in
1,937 Posts
a Classified Powershift + cassette + x2 crank might make having for a more efficient corn cob.
__________________
-Oh Hey!
-Oh Hey!
Likes For Troul:
#5
climber has-been
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Palo Alto, CA
Posts: 7,189
Bikes: Scott Addict R1, Felt Z1
Mentioned: 10 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 3500 Post(s)
Liked 3,642 Times
in
1,826 Posts
Likes For terrymorse:
#6
Senior Member
Thread Starter
The 30/44 is currently lower than I need, but the change from a 30/36 to a 30/38 has been helpful on 13% grades. I'm 70 years old now and I like to climb my steepest grades without being forced to get out of the saddle. I can use a 30/24 or 30/28 of if I want to do that for a mile. Just this year, that's become a lot more difficult. I'm trying to avoid the electric assisted alternative.
The 30/44 produces a speed of 4.3 mph at 80 rpm. That's a lot better than high torque grinding away at 65 rpm with a 30/36. My replaced knees thank me. I've logged over 29,000 miles on them.
As for the price, the latest sram 1251 cassette is priced at $127 and a Wolf Tooth road link is about $22. It's cheap and ,more importantly, it's totally modern. https://www.biketiresdirect.com/prod...UaAuzUEALw_wcB
You can still get a long lasting flat top chain for $35, but some sources want $50.
The 30/44 produces a speed of 4.3 mph at 80 rpm. That's a lot better than high torque grinding away at 65 rpm with a 30/36. My replaced knees thank me. I've logged over 29,000 miles on them.
As for the price, the latest sram 1251 cassette is priced at $127 and a Wolf Tooth road link is about $22. It's cheap and ,more importantly, it's totally modern. https://www.biketiresdirect.com/prod...UaAuzUEALw_wcB
You can still get a long lasting flat top chain for $35, but some sources want $50.
Last edited by DaveSSS; 11-17-23 at 09:09 AM.
#7
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2021
Posts: 8,590
Mentioned: 16 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 4486 Post(s)
Liked 4,959 Times
in
3,065 Posts
I can balance okay riding a 30/50 gear on my mtb. My lowest road bike gear is 35/33 and I find that very marginal for the steepest road climbs. I don’t think it’s very efficient when cadence involuntarily drops to 60 rpm or less on 20%+ ramps.
Roglic ran a 44//44 gear on the Giro mountain TT, which is super low gearing relative to his superhuman W/kg. 12% average gradient with a max of 22%. Thomas appeared to be labouring on his more conventional pro level gearing (39/32)
#8
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 5,997
Bikes: Colnago, Van Dessel, Factor, Cervelo, Ritchey
Mentioned: 8 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 3978 Post(s)
Liked 7,425 Times
in
2,986 Posts
Classic gearing tradeoff -- the wide range comes at the expense of large (10-19%) gearing jumps throughout the range. Not for everyone.
#9
Senior Member
Thread Starter
You can't have your cake and eat it too. I wanted to try a wide spaced 1X cassette just to see how it worked on the terrain that I ride, where there's very little flat - I'm nearly always going up or down, even if it's just 1-2%. So far, it really works well. Compared to a 10-36, you lose the 12T, but sprockets 13-32 are all the same, then it goes 32-38-44 instead of 28-32-36. On the big ring, my 46/38 has a better chain line and helps reduce shifts to the little ring. The 10-11-13 are strictly descending gears. The 46-13 will take me up to 28 mph and that requires a big tail wind if there's no slope to speed me up. The 12 never sees much use on the 10-36. It also makes me curious about Shimano's 10-45, but that requires a microspline freehub.
The microspline cassette can't be adapted to my Bitex 312 hubs, so in that respect, SRAM certainly works better. An XDR freehub works with an XD mountain cassette, just by adding a 1.85mm spacer.
The microspline cassette can't be adapted to my Bitex 312 hubs, so in that respect, SRAM certainly works better. An XDR freehub works with an XD mountain cassette, just by adding a 1.85mm spacer.
Last edited by DaveSSS; 11-20-23 at 03:54 PM.
#10
Senior Member