PeteHski

I have a 48/35 chainset and 10-33 cassette and never use the 35 front on flat terrain. But I also never use my highest 48/10 gear on the flat, so I would go for a smaller chainring if I wasn't riding any fast downhills. So in your situation I would most definitely go for a 1x setup and probably a 42 or 44 chainring with the 10-33 cassette.

jon c. 

I think you'd do fine with a 44 and a 10-33. I have a 54/42 double with a 10-28 cassette riding in Tallahassee and we have a lot more hills over here.

vespasianus

I also live in a flat area and while my road bike has a 50/34 chain-set and a 11-32 rear cassette, I never leave the 50T front ring and am changing out the 11-32 for a 12-25 cassette.

But, I also have a gravel bike with a 1X13 EKAR group and honestly, that rides fantastic and has all the gears I need for road and gravel. I am a huge fan of EKAR for road use.

urbanknight

Everybody has their own preferred range of gearing for various gradients and conditions. I suggest you play around with the Sheldon Brown gear calculator and input the gearing you plan on running, and decide if they keep you in your preferred cadence range. Even with some decent climbing, I have been playing around with getting a 1x for a back-up bike with a 42 up front and a nice wide 11-42 in the back, but that's if I decide to put up with a range of about 80-100 RPM.

You'll get better results if you do a google search specifying bikeforums.net as the domain.

jaxgtr

I have a Stages SB20, so I plan on using that for some general testing, as I can customize the gearing, while it will not be exact as it will be inside, I can use some of my routes out of my Garmin and give me a better idea. I just thought about this about 15 mins ago as I was sitting in my office working, and then did the; why didn't I think about this earlier, thing... . I guess it could be the long work hours lately.

jaxgtr

I've been looking at the Bikecalc, so have a general idea where I need to be.

tFUnK

For general all-around riding, I found 44x12-36 good enough. If I were to do it again, I'd go with 42x11-32. Since OP will not ride any inclines I'd go with 48x12-28.

Kapusta

You can take all the guesswork out of this by simply noting what the highest and lowest gear ratios you need on your current 2x setup.

Then just do some math.

DaveSSS 

I ride a lot of hills and mountain routes. I climbed over 14,000 feet in 188 miles last week. I road up a 10-12% grade, out of the saddle in a 46/32 ratio, which is 1.43/1. I'd rather sit and spin in my 30/32 which is 0.94/1. My 46/30 crank has a 1.53/1 ratio, which makes for a nearly perfect transition from out of the saddle to seated climbing.

Maelochs

I have ridden a couple of the bridges around Jax ..... the longer, flatter one and (many times) the metal nightmare which is steep and scary and slippery ..... If you always skip the metal bridge (I would---only reason I ever rode it was because I was new in town and didn't know where I was going or how to get there) Then in this specific case 1x might be a good idea. As I think @Paul Barnard noted, if you have an 11-42 as a back-up, you could even head north towards Georgia and the Carolinas and gt by.

Zaskar

Gearing or gear range really isn't the issue. Mtn and gravel bikes have been doing this with 1x setups for a while now. The sacrifice is not always having the "right" gear. The way we get the same range with the 1x is by having big jumps from cog to cog. On my 1x road bike, this seems to be an annoyance much more than on the mtn and gravel bikes. Ironically, my 53/15 single speed doesn't bother me. Probably because I'm never in the ideal gear ;-)

jaxgtr

The metal nightmare is scary in a car... and going into Arlington area and I will never be on that one or riding in Arlington, dangerous roads. The couple I am generally rolling over is on Beach Blvd over the intercoastal, the Acosta downtown, and a couple that go over the tracks. You can get nowhere here unless you cross a bridge due to the River.

jonathanf2

I recently built up a budget 1x road bike using LTwoo 1x GR9 11 speed shifters, GRX600 42t crankset, GRX400 rear derailleur and ultra lightweight 11-32t cassette (226g). I built it more as a durable fall/winter road bike, but with the potential to convert it to a gravel bike with this particular frame's wide tire clearance. So far I find it a joy to ride!