Gyfte

Hello,

I am currently riding a Canyon Grail CF Sl8.0 2x

I'm now looking at a new bike, and wondering if I shouldn't get a 1x.

I use my bike mostly for asphalt & hard gravel, less often for light singletracks. So all the info online say 2x.

Why am I hesitating now?
When I see how I ride a 2x,
starting on the big blade in front,
then first rear blade to smallest.
front blade to smallest blade.
rear blade shift higher until cadence is +/- equal .
then further the rear smaller gear again.

then i think this is equivalent to a 1x? without the complexity?
what do you guys think

Polaris OBark

Depends on the gearing. 1X might be geared too high, too low, or perfectly for your needs. We have no way of knowing.

It does have the benefit of eliminating the worry of cross-chaining, and you are less likely to stab yourself in the leg with your sprocket.

Steve B.

The inescapable fact of 1X is it gives you fewer mid gearing. It’s usually set up to give you the range, hi and lo, of a 2x system. But being a 11 or 12 cassette, will only give you that many gears, often with huge gaps between them. I’m OK with my 11 and 12 spd 1X systems on my mt. bikes as I’m riding up and down a lot of small hills and would be jumping between gears a lot. On the road, I prefer tighter spacing between the gearing, more useful in windy conditions or on easy rolling hills, YMMV

Polaris OBark

Here is a bicycle gear calculator: Bicycle Gear Calculator

Eric F 

When I started looking at changing my gravel bike from 2x to 1x, the first consideration was needing lower gearing for some of the steep climbs I encounter on many of my rides. Next, I looked to see how the large ring gear ratios and small ring gear ratios overlapped, and how much redundancy there was. What I found was that out of 22 possibilities, there was essentially 15 unique (or close) gear ratios. The biggest 2 I never really used. Any time I was going over about 28mph, I found I was usually just as well off coasting. I really didn't have situations where I needed to be putting down power at 30+ mph like I do on my road bike. So, for practical needs, I had 13 different gear ratios that were usable to me. Going to 1x, and extending the low range, expanded the jump between the lower gears a bit. However, what I found was that there are rare times when I wish I had an in-between gear, but it's really not a big deal to just turn a slightly slower or faster cadence. On my gravel bike, I'm really not riding long distances on the same grade at one cadence. My 38x42 low gear gets me up some pretty steep stuff, and my 38x11 top gear gives me all the speed I need.

All that said, your need might be different than mine. If my gravel bike was also serving my needs as a road bike, my gearing choice might be different.

Steve B.

Eric wrote;
'but it's really not a big deal to just turn a slightly slower or faster cadence"

Unless you are on a long flat road with a stiff headwind. Then you really, really wish you had that tighter spacing between gears.

mstateglfr 

I think I dont fully understand your shifting process. How I read what you typed above, it looks like you dont know how to effectively use a 2x drivetrain. If you dont know how to effectively use 2x, then 1x is clearly better.



On a related note, I also have never looked at a 2x drivetrain and felt it was complex. Its just 2 chainrings up front, and there is some overlap if you really want to dig into things, but that usually isnt even necessary.
I do accept that many look at 2 rings in the front and become frozen in fear, so 1x is perfect for them then.

Eric F 

Which is a condition I have yet to encounter on my gravel bike. The landscape in my part of the world doesn't have a lot of that. Also, I'm fairly comfortable pushing a bigger gear than ideal, if the conditions call for it. Big gear/low cadence work is something I do fairly regularly. I also have a singlespeed MTB that I ride occasionally. That bike doesn't care what your rpm comfort zone is - LOL. As I said, my bike setup works for my needs. YMMV.

msu2001la

You can get the same range with either. The main difference is the jumps between gears. 1x has bigger jumps (particularly as you go up in cassette size), 2x has more options/smaller jumps between gears.

If you're really picky about gear jumps and cadence, a 2x setup will be better. The main benefit of 1x is that it's a simpler system, fewer things to adjust/maintain and you never have to think about shifting a FD. You can run a narrow/wide chainring on a 1x setup so chain retention is a little better.

For those reasons, the general advice is 1x for more off-road, 2x for more on-road. Beyond that, it's mostly personal preference and there's no right/wrong answer here - I run 1x on my cyclocross bikes and use them for a fair amount of road riding. I've never found the gear jumps to be problematic, but I'm also not running super huge cassettes.

jonathanf2

1x makes your bike look cleaner!

Seriously though, on my gravel bike I'm not trying to go as fast as my road bikes since most my off-road terrain is uphill hard pack dirt trails and fire roads. Though if I rode my bike in conditions that had more rolling hills and flat stretches of gravel, I'd probably go 2x just to get that higher/tighter gearing.

msu2001la

Cute, but this comment suggests that there is no validity to 1x drivetrains other than simplicity, which isn't entirely true.

Like all things gravel, the spectrum of riding styles and terrain varies widely and generally falls somewhere in-between road and MTB, so it's natural that some will prefer a more road-like setup and some will prefer a setup that leans more MTB.

There's room in this world for multiple options on these topics.

msu2001la

You might gravel differently than me, but I would probably just drop to the next lower gear in this situation and spin a comfortable cadence, not worrying about the speed as much.

2x makes more sense for gravel racing and/or group rides where you need to maintain a specific speed.

t2p

1x can have significant jumps - but you know what is a bigger jump ?

the jump to / from the small and big chain ring on a 2x

to me - the elimination of this gap on 1x is as much or more of significant benefit than the elimination of the front shifter and derailleur

if your terrain / riding style etc is suitable for 1x - you will probably like 1x

but as others point out in previous posts - there are some compromises and drawbacks to 1x (and therefore 1x will not ideally suit many)

unterhausen

I think it would be fine for me to have a 1x gravel bike. I have a 42 tooth big chainring on my gravel bike now. So when I look at a gear calculator with 42-11 as a high gear, and 28-32 as a low gear, it's not too difficult to come up with a 1x that would cover most of that range. I probably would sacrifice a couple gears on the high end if it was going to be a pure gravel bike.

Eric F 

Simultaneously shifting front and rear eliminates the big jump when switching rings.

t2p

yes - I do that - or fairly close ... sorta / kinda ... sometimes required to maintain desired cadence ... even on my bike with a 46/34 ... (that is an outstanding front shifting bike - light / quick / snappy)

but I do like this attribute of 1x because I don’t need to do this ... just keep clicking / rowing up and down the gears

Eric F 

For a gravel bike, I agree with 1x...like the sequential shifting of a race car

t2p

another thing I like about 1x - the front derailleur and that area is often one of the most affected areas when riding gravel and dirt roads ... get covered with crap ... after just a few months of rides the front derailleur can look like it has been in service for a few years instead of months ... and they are annoying pita to clean

Calsun

Something I have noticed is that on the low end bikes they usually have 2x setups and the higher end bikes are 1x. This is for mountain and gravel bikes where 11-speed cassettes are the norm. With road bikes 12-speed cassettes are provided along with two chain rings to in theory provide 24 speeds, assuming no overlap. With road bikes more gears help to maintain a desired cadence on a wide range of terrain.

tFUnK

Are you planning to keep the old bike and buy a new bike in addition, or only keep the new bike and get rid of the old bike?

If the 1x was my only bike I would feel limited, but if you're going to have to bikes then you can have one 1x and one 2x. I have both and my 2x is set up more like an all-road bike and my 1x has flat bars and is like a rigid MTB. I could use lower gearing on the 1x though (currently 42x13-40).

mstateglfr 

Yeah, there is definitely room in the world for multiple drivetrain options. 100% agree and I am definitely not fundamentally against 1x for gravel.
I was just saying that I have now come across a lot of people, in person and online, that straight up cant conceptualize how 2 chainrings could work. So for them, 1x is definitely the way to go(as opposed to 3x, which would melt their brains).

mstateglfr 

If you need to drop to the smaller ring up front, just click the left shifter twice to drop the chain to the small ring up front and click the right shifters a couple times to drop the chain onto a smaller cog. This will get you into a ratio that is roughly where you then need to be(since you are needing to shift to an easier ratio that where you currently are). Its instantaneous and not even something to think about - two clicks of each shifter and then if needed, adjust once more on the right side one direction or the other.
There is no significant jump then.

Eric F 

Kids, these days!!! Back in my day, we rode bikes with 3 chainrings...in the snow...uphill both ways!!

mstateglfr 

You consistently have some really hot takes on this site, but this one is scorching.

Cervelo Aspero GRX RX815 di2- $6500 https://www.cervelo.com/en-US/bikes/aspero
Cervelo Aspero 5 GRX RX815 di2- $6500 https://www.cervelo.com/en-US/bikes/aspero-5
Canyon Grizl CF SLX 8 di2- $4700 https://www.canyon.com/en-us/gravel-...nfarbe=GN%2FBK
Giant Revolt Advanced Pro 0 di2- $6400 https://www.giant-bicycles.com/us/revolt-advanced-pro-0
Trek Checkpoint SLR7 di2- $8550 https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/b...ellow_bluedark

The list could go on and on.
1x is popular for sure, especially since anything gravel with SRAM will be 1x due to...well no need to derail the thread.

Eric F 

Is this copy-pasta from AI? It's vaguely correct, but yet, not.