Help me decide between 1x and 2x

Hi all,

I’ve just bought a surly disc trucker frame as a winter project to build up for spring next year. I’m currently a 90s mountain bike guy using my bike largely for commuting but often for bikepacking too. I’m currently on a 3x7 drivetrain and find I never leave my middle cog. I believe it’s about 34t. I very occasionally use the largest and in the past year have used the smallest once.

This has led me to think I’d be better off with a 1x system. I’ve been thinking of a 1x10 set up with 11-45t in the back. Seeing as I can seemingly do everything with my 34t I’m thinking I’d be best to maybe put something a little larger up front to make use of all the gears. Maybe 36 or 38t?

I really want the bike to be a bit of a do everything bike. Rideable on all terrains, able to manage decent climbs, good at carrying a bit of weight but still comfortable as a city rider too.

Can you guys weigh in on what you think of 1x systems for these applications? Would 38x11-45t give me a decent range to have a crack at whatever I throw at it or would something else suit better?

Hoping to get these ideas set out before I begin the build in full!

Cheers

38x11-45t

Your fitness may vary etc. but this is a pretty decent choice. Run 38x11-42 for road, commuting, grav, touring. Fully loaded and off road can be a little challenging but no plans to change.

My partner runs 36x11-46 and that's really good if you don't want to descend fast.

Yeah it seemed about right in my mind. I never haul particularly heavy loads, and my off road riding is probably only 30% of what I do, if that, so I’d be happy with the challenge when it comes about.

Thanks for the advice

I run 42x11-42 on the Midnight Special and it’s fine of everything I’ve thrown at it, but then I live in Norfolk and it’s only been day rides when I’ve in hillier parts. If I were heavily loaded or in the hills did run the biggest cassette I could fit. I can’t be doing with front derailleurs.

I’m in Norfolk too haha. 42 upfront is pretty large haha. I’m hoping 38 will be a nice balance for me

Haha! Quality! Now is probably not a good time to say my road bike is 1x 50x34-11 ;)
36 or 38 is where I’m looking at for Liz’s gravely bike soon.

On the other hand, I'd say the only compelling reason not to have a FD is if you can't get the hang of setting them up despite your best efforts.

It doesn't really detract from anything (unless you can't stand the aesthetics or it's a full weenie build), and adds heaps of range, which you can trade for closer gearing, which I for one am all about.

Ha, I do hate setting up a front derailleur!

While I totally get where you’re coming from, I think the fact I so rarely change gears up front tells me it’s somewhat redundant. I can do 50 mile rides while sitting in the middle chainring the whole time.

I’m also keen for the somewhat lower maintenance. I do all my own maintenance on my bikes so anything to make that slightly easier seems like a win to me.

I'll never use a 1x for a bike I would road tour on again. Found out the hard way that a 1:1 gear just isn't low enough for getting up proper hills with all the gubbins, and a 1x system that allows a good cruising road speed with a decent bottom gear is prohibitively expensive because of how much of a premium is charged for wide range cassettes. In your position I'd get a shimano grx 46-30 double. That paired with an 11-42 or 46 cassette (available fairly economically these days if you shop around) would be pretty good.

The benefits of 1x system aside from admittedly being easier to set up and maintain is mostly about chain retention, but assuming you're not throwing yourself down actual downhill single track as fast as you can it will be perfectly fine.

The bike I gained this experience with was my midnight special. I did the caledonia way on it on which 42:42 was about doable (still pretty high) but later tried doing a tour around the north Yorkshire moors and spend half my time walking.

For the application in your OP (just flattish rides around the east of england) I think 1x would be fine though.

1x on MTB
2x on gravel, road, touring, bikepacking
Internal gear hub on cargo and electric bikes

mysteriously, though, single speed is good for everything! 😁

If I lived in Norfolk I wouldn't bother with a front derailleur

If you also never travelled that might apply.

I live in London, where a fixed gear is fine (remember those?) but I ride muvuckinmountainz™ so 2x ftw unless it's MTBing and then I'll leave it 1x.

single speed is good for everything!

It might be usable, it's not good. It is cheap and fun though, like heroin.

+1 on the 1x approach.

On my AWOL I run 38 - 11/46 and it's perfect (for me).

Road rides, fully loaded tours, South Downs, never felt like I need more gears. If I did for a particularly mountainous ride I'd probably just swap down to a 36t front ring.

I don't think I'll ever have a front mech again.

This definitely sounds like my sort of use case!

I’m pretty confident I’m going to take this route. It feels like it’s going to suit my needs considering how I use my gearing currently.

I run 42X11 with a 42t on my CX/gravel bike and it's always been fine for pretty much anything I've used it for. The only place I've ever wanted more at either end of the gear range was in Snowdonia and I think what I actually needed was better legs.

That said, it mostly gets used for SFAB rides around London and the SE so chain retention kinda overrides gearing for me.

If you're going to be buying everything for said setup, 2x will be much cheaper. And it of course gives you more freedom in the future, with no want/need to be changing to a smaller front ring for a certain tour or ride. You can

10spd 2x FTW

Most people aren't very good setting up front derailleurs. Go 1x, one less thing to worry about

If you're going to be buying everything for said setup, 2x will be much cheaper

I don't think that's true these days.

Advent X rear mech, Deore 10spd cassette, spa 1x chainset (or even GRX) and a bar end shifter, or the Sword shifters I don't think is any more than equivalent 2x setup.

I think Cues stuff is even cheaper.

Cues cassettes are pretty dear in my opinion. In terms of cassettes at least a 11-34 cassette is about half that of a 11-46. In my opinion if money saving is the object, a 2x system should wear less quickly than an equivalent 1x, and so you should get better life out of your gear all other things being equal.

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You can get a Deore 11-46 for £35 on biketart at the moment just for balance.

On the wear thing, I've often wondered as a very unengineery person if 2x does wear slower than 1x. Does shifting between chainrings add additional 'side wear' to chains and chainrings? It might not, just curious. I'd also wonder if a larger cassette means you shift more at the rear, so does it last longer than a smaller cassette? I have no idea on the answers, I just ride what feels good to me.

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like heroin.

But heroin isn't beneficial to health, whereas many people find riding fixed is good for them.

This is pretty much my plan! Microshift sword RD (£37 on sports direct rn), I’ve got a middleburn 1x crankset with 38t chain ring. Then likely sword shifters, tho may go for their friction shifters not sure yet…

An Old Person's View

I do wonder why anyone would want such low gears.

When I was very young (14) I did a YHA trip from London to South Wales (Brecon Beacons!) with a schoolfriend (same age). I thought I might need lower gears, so I bought a new 5 block (ie cassette) with a 25 tooth bottom sprocket. This was combined with a 48 inner ring and I thought at the time it was a super low gear! Of course I was wrong, but all the same we got there and back - I don't remember walking up hills, but I don't guarantee that my memory is perfect.

One thing I do remember clearly is that at Oxford, on the way home, we pooled what remained of our money and found that between us we had enough for two Mars bars and fourpence for a phone call home in the case of dire emergency (not needed). Actually, quite good budgeting for 14 year olds. I remember the worrying shape of the Chiltern ridge coming into view, but I also remember that the climb up Dashwood hill to Stokenchurch was no problem when we came to it.

Two small practical points: if you have a double chainring, your chainline will be better on the bottom sprocket than it would be with a single. Also, if you unship the chain (not unlikely with so many sprockets), you will probably be able to get the chain back on using your front changer without having to dismount.