DangerousDanR

I have 1X on a drop bar bike. It is my Gravel/Commuter/Touring bike

It is slower than my road bikes; not a surprise. The 1X13 gearing with Ekar is sort of wide ratio for slow going, then close ratio at the high end. I haven't had it out of ND/MN so I haven't done any climbing, but the gears work well going into our constant wind. If I build another road bike I will consider using Ekar.

Koyote

Now I'm curious: how does a BB failure prevent shifting the FD?

seypat

+1.

urbanknight

In my opinion, the only reason to consider a 1x road bike is if you're okay with a wide range of cadences, and you really don't care to pedal on fast downhills. The benefits are mostly the simpler and less expensive drivetrain, and a little bit of weight savings.

seypat

I would never use a 1X, especially with a Shimano STI shifter. It has everything to do with fatigue in my right foream muscles. The long throw of the brake lever shift is very similar to a wrist curl(for me). Over the course of an all day ride, those muscles get tight. I get to a point where I can't squeeze the brake lever. I use a triple and Microshift shifters. One or 2 shifts of the front and 3-4 shifts of the back will cover a large part of the range. Way less shifting to go from your smallest to your largest gear and visa versa. I don't care if I have redundant gears. What I care about is having options.

Lombard

It does if the BB failure leads to a seized BB and you can't pedal. Of course then not being able to shift is irrelevant.

Lombard

I would say a 1X would be an advantage on a full-suspension mountain bike where the pivoting of the rear shock can make chain drops more likely. On other than a mountain bike, I would prefer a 2X.

Koyote

Sure, but GhostRider62 wrote that he finished the ride. I'm just curious -- never heard of a BB affecting shifting.

DangerousDanR

This is probably true with the Shimano or SRAM 12 speed cassettes. With the Ekar you have a close ratio 8 speed for road speeds and a wide ratio 5 speed for slower rough or steep riding.
With a 40 tooth chainring and a 9-42 cassette it works out well. I was a little apprehensive about going back to a cable controlled derailleur, but the shift quality is good.

Top speed works out to about 36 MPH at a cadence of 100.

mschwett 

I have a 1x road e-bike, which I typically rode/ride without the motor on. 42t in the front and 10-42 in the back. my 12 speed 2x road bike is 52/36 up front and 11-34 in the back. obviously 4.7 is a lot higher highest gear than 4.2 but the range really isn’t that different. I could see living with a 44t up front and 10-42 rear on a road bike. The close spacing of 12 cogs between 11 and 34 doesn’t mean all that much to me.

Camilo

The reason I've gravitated to Sram for my mechanical bikes- the right shifting just works better for my right elbow (arthritis), it's a bit more of a hand motion rather than a arm/elbow rotation which just works better for me.

RCMoeur 

I recently set up a bike as a 1x9, partly as an experiment, and partly to save a bit of weight in chainrings / front derailleur / etc. I have a 36 in the front and an 11-36 in the rear. The 9 speed cassette gives me reasonably good spacing, with 2 tooth gaps in the higher end. I looked at my riding for the past several years, and I noted that about the only times I'm above 22 mph is on a descent, and I just coast anyway, so the 36/11 high should be sufficient. The low end is a 1:1, which gets me up long 7-8% climbs comfortably if not swiftly. So far, I'm reasonably satisfied.

DaveSSS 

I ride many different hill and mountain climbs in northern Colorado. If the climbing isn't too steep, I can ride a 22 mile climb from Loveland to Estes Park with over 3000 feet of climbing with a 48 or 46 big ring and not use a sprocket larger than a 28, since the steepest area is only 7-8%. I ride out of the saddle on those slopes. I've ridden a short 10-11% slope with a 46/32, out of the saddle. I wouldn't think of using a 1x drivetrain though. I wouldn't use a triple either. My 10-36 12 speed SRAM cassette with a Shimano GRX 48/31 or 46/30 crank gives me the low gear I need to ride 13% grades seated. For those with hand issues, electronic shifting is much easier. My toughest route has over 5000 feet of climbing with grades up to 13%, most of it in The first 30 miles of the 54 mile loop.

I agree with one poster about the 60 rpm cadence for pedaling up a steep climb, out of the saddle. 55 rpm is about my low limit. I ride out of the saddle a lot, even on lesser slopes where I don't need to, but with a higher cadence, up to 75. I reached that 2 pound per inch weight of 132 for awhile this season, but 134 or 135 is more common for me.
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tomato coupe

When you feed all those numbers into the Silca supercomputer, it says you should be on a single speed.

DaveSSS 

Nope. They must be overlooking the difference between seated and out of the saddle pedaling. I use my 30/36 for seated pedaling on grades in the 11-13% range. At age 69, my power output isn't what it used to be. I also want at least a 46/10 top gear.

Seattle Forrest

My favorite climbs are short (ish) and very steep.

Koyote

I guess we're not going to get an answer. Too bad. I had been honestly wondering if there was some mechanical issue (between BB and FD) that I'd never seen...But now I wonder if this is just another case of a bf'er making things up.

msu2001la

I have a 1x on my drop bar gravel/CX bike, which is also my road bike. For me, 1x makes the most sense for a dual-purpose bike.

I run a 44T with an 11-32 rear on a clutched GRX derailleur. This gearing works fine for normal road riding on flat roads. I have reasonably tight gear jumps through most of the cassette and can pedal up to around 30-35mph before spinning out. 44x32 is low enough for the short climbs I encounter. I have no problem keeping up with faster group road rides on this gearing, but I also don't use this bike for road racing so 44x11 is plenty of top-end.

I like 1x because it's simple and because on the flat roads I typically ride, I never use the small ring on a traditional 2x setup anyway. I also like the way 1x looks, and for gravel/CX, the 1x chain retention and mud clearance are better.

1x works for me specifically because I don't do a lot of climbing and I can run narrower cassettes. I don't need a big range of gears, and even when I rode 2x road bikes, 95% of my riding was big-ring only. That said, if I was looking for a bike that would be exclusively road and used for climbing, I'd definitely want 2x. Those larger 1x cassettes start to get really heavy and the resulting gaps between gears can get annoying on the road.

Koyote

I understand your other reasons for running 1x, but must point out the one large advantage of multiple chainrings: the ability to run narrower cassettes. Running 1x means running a wider cassette, with more gaps, if you want anything close to the same low and high gearing.

Do you mean that you normally run narrow cassettes anyway, and so 1x is not much of a compromise in that regard?

terrymorse 

Yes, thanks. Almost normal again, some lingering fatigue. Good thing it's the "off" season.

msu2001la

I think we're saying the same thing. My road riding is all flat, and I don't need a big range of gears for that. For me, an 11sp 2x drivetrain running a 50/34 with an 11-32 is overkill, and I will have a dozen gear combos on both the high and low ends that I'll never touch. When I had a 2x road bike I almost never used the small ring.

I can run the same narrow range 11-32 cassette with a 44T 1x setup and have gearing that works very well for what I need. There's no compromise at all for flat road riding - the compromises only start when mountain climbing comes into the picture, which is what the OP is talking about. For that, I definitely would want 2x.

surak

I run a SRAM 1x 40t front and 11-36t rear on my rain bike. It works fine, I've done the 20min Cat 2 climbs around Seattle on it in fastish group rides. The top end and gearing gaps don't bother me, but I would prefer spinning with a lower gear when hit with steeper than 12% grades for extended distances. Have entertained the idea of either a 38t chainring (would be dead simple to do except I've read some complaints on the SRAM 38t specifically and the hidden bolt arrangement) or using the Ratio kit to get 12sp with a SRAM MTB cassette that I could then also take on gravel, but in the end those aren't frequent enough scenarios.

sarhog

My 1x climber.

SoSmellyAir

I had the same setup (50/34 & 11-32) when I first bought my first road bike, and also rode around almost exclusively in the 50T ring. Then, as I started venturing further and up some local hills, I started to really notice the gaps in the 11-32 cassette, and swapped to a 12-25 cassette, which forced my legs to get a tiny bit less wimpy. Now I have gone to a 12-28 cassette, which seems to be the sweet spot for my (lack of) power and local area.

Eric F 

Your logic isn't following, Jonathan. Using a larger chainring will negate (or mostly negate) the lower gearing you got by going with a larger cassette. Your only gain would be at the higher end. Especially considering our part of the world isn't flat, a 1x becomes a compromise where you lose range at both ends of the spectrum, and have wider jumps in the middle. If that compromise works for you, that's cool, but understand that it's still a compromise.