rosefarts

It’s so close.

40x10-44 in 11 speed is almost there. This is achieved with a standard 10-42, remove the 42 and replace with a 44t wolf tooth. The gaps are fine in the dirt. A bit noticeable on the road.

Same cassette with an oval 42 is even better. Better at the gaps and overall a tad smoother. A light loss on the low gear but barely noticeable.

Running the unmolested 10-42 11 speed cassette on either ring yields the same basic results since the gaps are more noticeable at cruising speed type gears.

I run an Archer D1x modular shifter on my bike. Upgrading to 12 or 13 or even 14 is as simple as opening my app and reindexing the shifter.

Makes me think I’d be pretty happy with 12 speed. XPLR is 10-44. Perfect. Except not for me. This would require me to get a new cassette body XDr vs my XD, and I’m not sure it even exists for my hubs. Then maybe a new chain and chainring, not sure but maybe. Lots of faffing around for something so minor.

Outside of SRAM, e-thirteen is so close to perfect. 9-45, compatible with my 11 speed chain, and designed for an XD freehub body. It’s a little spendy but it’s not going to really screw up my budget.

But 9 teeth? Utterly useless. 42x9 is higher than my road bike (50/34x12-30). It’s so high it’ll definitely never get used. This bike rides 90% dirt and trails. Switching to a 38tooth ring would present the problem of more noticeable jumps and it would be so low, that 45 would never get used. I simply don’t want or need 500%

So I’m stuck with 11 speed. And relatively happy.

Such as brainworms go, this one has dug in. Do I have options, I don’t see any.

Can anyone convince e-thirteen that range isn’t everything? If they built a 12 speed 10-44 or 45, even at $320, I’d have already ordered it.

Its not quite enough of an issue to swap out my entire drivetrain. Whether to XPLR or Ekar.

I feel like a pretty regular person, but I frequently seem to want what doesn’t exist.

Koyote

Rode my 9sp bike today and it was great. Sometimes ride my 10sp, and very often ride my 11sp bikes. Also ride my single-speed bike around town and am happy with it.

Are you getting my point?

rosefarts

Nope.

venturi95

Get the gaps between cassette gears where you are Happy, then gear the crank where you are getting a low enough first gear. Or just get a 2x crank and front derailleur. One-by systems are vastly over-rated for anything on roads (gravel roads are still roads).

Koyote

Obsess less, pedal more.

wayold

I kind of agree, but it would be so easy for me to just throw a SRAM 10-52 cassette and Eagle derailleur on the back of a new gravel build with a 40T 1x up front and have *almost* enough range. Other solutions with 2x GRX, modified derailleurs and chain rings would ultimately be better, but require a lot more fiddling around.

rosefarts

Its definitely crossed my mind.

A 46/32 with with an 11-36 cassette would do all I want and probably give me one more climbing gear I wouldn’t use but might.

On a gravel or mountain bike. I don’t like the aesthetics of 2x, just like I don’t like 1x on a road bike.

10-44 in 12 speed would totally accomplish this. It’s just amazing to me that there’s only one option on the market.

Campy Ekar has a 13 speed 10-44 that I’m sure is amazing. I probably should have done this when I got the frame, but at this point, it would be an epic strip down and rebuild to do it.

Steve B.

Agree. I saw the post title and thought "perfect for whom ". The gaps are huge for road riding. I want one tooth moves for where I live. 1X makes no sense foe road riding in general and IMO.

rosefarts

Im sorry for where you live.

Steve B.

1. There are more scenic and enjoyable places, recreation wise, I know.. I used to spend a few months per year in Santa Fe, NM, when my wife worked at the opera there. I could road or mt. ride all over. Went to Colorado a few times, SF was at 7.000 ft., took time to get acclimated, many difficult hills, where I could see the usefulness of a wide geared 1X system.
2. OTOH, I have never had to replace rim brake pads, LOL.

Fentuz

I run mullet setups
winter 36x11-46 because 10to 15% muddy off road hills
summer 36x9-46

i use the 36x9 often which covers more range than the original 42x11 most rival equipped gravels come with.
people are worried about the premature wear on a 9speed cog but, the e13 ebike approved cassette is made of hard steel (harder than std steel) and i have not noticed any issue after 5000kms.
only issue is that I have to run a 12 speed eagle chain although it is a 11s groupset

rosefarts

I don’t really load my bike down with a ton of weight. I’m riding in Central Oregon with the occasional foray into Colorado. I’m not a gifted climber but the gearing I’m describing upthread is more than enough for me. Expanding that range would pretty much mean I’m not using major sections of the cassette, which seems silly.

Otherwise, I love what e-thirteen is making.

Campagnolo, with the 13 speed Ekar group offers cassettes with both a 9 and 10 tooth small ring. They have understood small gaps between gears better than most over the years, sometimes to a fault.

I’d love a company to make something close to that without me having to change damn near everything.

Fentuz

e13 has 11s in
9-34
9-39
9-42
9-46

which mean that you don t need to change everything.
but, things are achiveable with different rings.

rosefarts

Im very picky.

I like the way a bike feels on larger rings. Even at the same ratios. Could be in my head. There is also the subject of math. While 38x9 is pretty close to 42x10, the jump percentage to 38x11 is larger than 42x12

Is that perceptible or in my head?

I’ve just emailed Stan’s to see if they have an XDR freehub body for me, but I don’t think they do.

rosefarts

It was a fun little rabbit hole. Stan’s does not make a compatible freehub body for the 3.30 hub. Listed below are my options in no particular order.

- Put a e-thirteen 9-46 on. This requires a change of the chain and probably ring, to a 38t.

-Rebuild/replace the rear wheel with something more compatible. Bitex hubs can be had in either XDR or Campagnolo 10-13sp compatible.
-For Sram XPLR, I’d need a new chain.
-For Campy, I’d need a new chain and to file the sides of the wide teeth (apparently this works). This is really the best 1x option if smoothness matters.

-Go 2x and toss my entire Archer shifter. This would be ridiculously expensive for the level I’d want. 46-32 x 11-36 would work. So basically GRX Di2. I’d still need a Shimano freehub body. This is only an option for a new build IMO.

-Do nothing. Revisit these ideas if and when I have worn out a cassette or I’ve destroyed a rear wheel.

Pointless maybe, definitely fun to think about.

Trakhak

Agreed. That's why many of us haven't been tempted to switch to 1X setups, at least for our road bikes.

Fentuz

Yes, on a road bike where it is all about cadence, you need small gaps between gears and because of gradient, you need range so yes, on road bike 2x is in my book a must.
for time trial and triathlon, and the terrain is consistent, you can get away with a 1x and therefore save range.


personnaly, innthe cotswold or bittany, I don t need to spin more than 100GI. So a 1x works well for me
The slx is close enough with 36T and i spin 90gi in winter but in summer i run out and over spin.
the e13 has 5 closer cog at each end and 1 linking cog (6th speed/gear) in the middle so you don t get big gaps unless you set the ring to be mostly somewhere in the middle of the cassette. In a way, it is bit like being on 5 road cog, then change the chain ring and be with a MTB setup.