Help me decide between 1x and 2x

For sure but then from the same retailer a 10s 11-34 cassette is about 60% the same price.

I've no doubt that doubles have greater resistance to wear than 1x. By using a bigger chainring on the front you're applying force to more links on the chain than with a single, smaller chainring. Further, it's more likely you'll be using the bigger sprockets on the cassettes body, so the aggro is being distributed over more chain links, over more teeth. In the same way a track bike with a big chainring and a big sprocket (and by extension a bigger chain) will be less liable to chain wear than eg a track bike with a 44/16 setup, even though the actual gear ratios are identical.

I currently run a 44/16 on my fixed gear bike but often moot finding a bigger chainring and sprocket for this reason. Whenever I replace the chain I'm throwing away links and thereby giving my chains a shorter life. And the faster a chain wears, the faster everything else in the drivetrain wears.

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Two small practical points

Two fair points. I think if chainline was really an issue people wouldn't be racing them at high level both on and off road, and I've never had a problem. Over the last 6000 miles or so, I've never changed my chainring (garabuk one, still looks good as new to me), I've changed cassette once although I probably didn't need to (new wheels), and change my chain once every spring). I'll admit I use friction shifting, so any wear etc is mitigated by the ability to adjust the gear rather than it indexed. I also care less than most about wear I expect. I don't measure chain wear etc.

Narrow/wide and clutches are so good, see above, particularly off road.

Just my views, I used to love triples and still think 3x is the best aesthetic for gears.

I haven't owned a triple for a long time, the only thing that really puts me off them is that it seems like you can't get sti ones that are compatible with hydraulics and for me I'd want any touring bike to have hydraulics for the purposes of braking down steep hills. I guess the way round would be to just use bar end shifters and some singlespeed hydraulic levers.

There's a guy at brixton cycles (may have since moved on) who build a midnight special up this way and he seems very happy with it. So you can get nice low gearing without needing to buy really spendy cassettes and chains over the life of the bike.

Spa actually sell quite a few 'doubles' which are literally just triple chainsets but with the big ring converted in to a guard so you can't slash your leg open.

Front derailleurs suck. Double maintenance if you have cables, double things that can break, not easy to adjust for the average user and there's always the possibility of a dropped chain even if it's perfectly set up.
I work on bikes and rear derailleur it's usually half a turn of the barrel and maybe set the distance right whereas front derailleurs are usually so badly set up I have to start from scratch

I guess the way round would be to just use bar end shifters and some singlespeed hydraulic levers.

IMO the main reason cable discs suck is the constant adjustment required; hybrid calipers would allow the triple with decent discs combo.

That's a bit exaggerated... I hardly ever worry about minimising cable friction for the front, and just reuse old rear cables there. Adjusting FDs is usually actually pretty easy when you know how.

Front derailleurs suck

It's interesting that you should say that.

I've never had much trouble with front derailleurs. The Welsh tour bike mentioned above had a Benelux rod changer which I was given and which I fitted without any problem that I can remember, although I was a bit concerned that rod changers weren't cool.

More recently my old training bike(high mileage) has a front changer of unknown make which is obviously clapped out (it's loose and wobbly) but since it still works ok I haven't bothered to replace it. Similarly my Cyclo Standard touring bike (see Pre 1950's thread) had a cable operated front changer which really should not have worked : 46/32, 3/32" chainrings with an 1/8th" chain and antique rear mech. No problem.

However, the cable changers are all on friction levers.

Perhaps modern front derailleurs have become more difficult to set up?

I find front mechs pretty easy to look after once they've been set up right on the seat tube/braze on. Whenever someone comes to the shed wanting help with the shifting not working or the chain falling off its usually just a matter of winding a barrel adjuster on the shifter in on a flat bar, or on the (externally mounted) braze on on the down tube, or adjusting the limit screws. Of course the more flashy frames no longer have a braze on for an external cable and a barrel adjuster, so unless you plug in an in line barrel adjuster on the cable itself, it is more difficult, but I can't pin the blame on that on the front mech itself.

Unlike the rear mech there's no hanger to get bent out of alignment so they've always been pretty well behaved in my experience. Only exception is for drop bar front brifters, which have failed internally on me (and warrantied).

FDs are fine. Better range, better chain retention, probably less wear on stuff and more efficient due to better chainline, something to do with your other hand while not applying sunscreen and crashing into potholes, yada yada...

I've never had any issue with my 7800 FD but the newest cable ones are more finicky. I do not like.

Di2 is kinda odd initial setup (especially because they have what everything thinks are limit screws, but they aren't and no one reads the manual) but then just works on anything pretty much and I forget about them

I love that little bracing grub screw on the newer Shimano FDs!

An extra bit of hassle during setup, but a vast improvement over the marginal rigidity of a normal braze-on arrangement.

I realise you're probably referring to the screw on DI2 which works a bit like the barrel adjuster on a mechanical one, but you made me think of it

I ran 1x on my touring/gravel bike and had no issues getting up some pretty big hills loaded up, I think i had a 40 - 11/36, but you can always go bigger on the back/smaller on the front. Set up with a bar end microshifter and never had any issues.

I eventually changed to a 2x not for the uphill, but to be able to send it back downhill faster and with a bar end shifter it was honestly the easiest thing I've ever set up.

In other words both can easily work but by the sounds of it you've pretty much already been riding 1x and seem set to go that route, so unless you want to hoof it downhill go with that... you can also always eventually change it

That's the "extra initial setup" I was referring to yeah. That and learning how the "not limit screws" work.

In the hilly events I've been doing I think I use my FD more than my RD for much of them.

It's literally: granny gear uphill into big ring for downhill (not really pedaling, just to reduce chain slap) and back into granny for the next climb. Maybe I should just run 30x42 singlespeed :)

Sounds like single speed is the way haha, definitely no chain slap and you can rock up to bike polo mid ride and give their ratios a run for their money :))

But yeah I definitely enjoy the 2x for the downhill. On the uphill it's usually just slap it in the smallest gear I have, as you said

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

Hub gears are for Germans and influencers.

Not sure where I fall there

Single chainring. That's the ting
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