1x for Road Bikes - is it real?

[chriso_29er]

For a road racer to get the same range and spread of gears as a standard road race 53/39 x 11-28 with x1 they will need 14 sprockets on the rear running from 11-38 with a 53 tooth chainring.

Well almost there already lol. Sram is up to 12 arn't they

[Derny Driver]

Well almost there already lol. Sram is up to 12 arn't they

Yeah its getting pretty ridiculous.
Its pretty obvious to see how the manufacturers are running out of room to keep changing the back cogs, so now they are switching attention to the front.
Its all just to keep people upgrading and spending money.

[Kronos]

Maybe it keeps silly people upgrading I'm running 2x10 on both my bikes one Rival the other Ultegra I have no plans of going anywhere. The bigger problem with cycling is that there is a lot of people with more dollars than sense. It's not really a problem, your local bike store loves these guys, but I'm seeing more and more people with expensive carbon bikes, disc brake rims and the latest groupset just because the pro tour and continental riders are riding that.

These things do not make the average rider any faster.

[march83]

But I bet they enjoy it. Why would you care about that?

[Kronos]

But I bet they enjoy it. Why would you care about that?

I don't really care, its a conversation and nothing more, and I don't care for anything beyond a conversation on the matter... It goes deeper than that though if you're really interested. Your money is compensation for a chunk of time out of your life. If you value that bike as much as that chunk of your life you spent doing whatever, that's not really my business and I don't feel like arguing about it. If you want to snap at me for offering you advice that might save your hard earned for something else then its not me with a problem though either.

[uart]

While I don't really see any compelling reason for most people to "upgrade" to a 1x setup, I do see it as something of a logical progression. With the ever increasing number of gears on the rear cassette and compact chainrings - triple chainrings have become all but redundant for touring and hybrid bikes. I suppose it's just a natural progression from this for double chainring setups to eventually become redundant for commuter and sportive riders.

As long as the cross chaining issue is sorted (or a non issue) I can't see any reason why most commuter/sportive riders wouldn't thrive with something like 44:[11,12,13,14,16,18,20,23,26,30,36], and the linear shifting pattern can only be a bonus.

Improvements in rear cassettes/clusters have been made over the years. Obviously the number of gears, but also the overall range and the weight of these larger clusters has improved. In bygone years a huge cluster like the one listed above would have been a weight penalty if anything (over extra chainrings). But not these days.

Also the burgeoning ebike market is often going mid-drive, which can't have a front derailleur, so 1x systems are a natural choice there. So it's all coming together for this setup in my opinion. As I say, no compelling reason to upgrade to it if you are happy with your current setup, but I think that it's something we will see becoming increasingly common on new bikes.

[human909]

For decades city bikes have had a 1x setup. Either conventional derailleur rear or a hub setup. The advantages are many, including the simple but very import CHAIN GUARD to protect your city clothes from grease off the chain.

For all the many naysayers, surely the obvious question is what are the advantages of multiple chain rings? Gear range is about it, so if you cover that base then you aren't left with much.

Cross chaining? How much difference does the few mm between one chain ring and another make? Even if there is slight power loss of cross chaining would this be more than offset by the power efficiency gain by riding using larger cogs?

[fat and old]

But I bet they enjoy it. Why would you care about that?

I don't really care, its a conversation and nothing more, and I don't care for anything beyond a conversation on the matter... It goes deeper than that though if you're really interested. Your money is compensation for a chunk of time out of your life. If you value that bike as much as that chunk of your life you spent doing whatever, that's not really my business and I don't feel like arguing about it. If you want to snap at me for offering you advice that might save your hard earned for something else then its not me with a problem though either.

The bigger problem with cycling is that there is a lot of people with more dollars than sense.

If it's none of your business and you don't care beyond a conversation then why constantly !! BAN ME NOW FOR SWEARING !! can people who do? That's not a conversation. That's just rude.

Oh yeah...I'll take the smallest gaps I can get. Derny is spot on about those missing 14 and 16 cogs. Even I use them heaps.

[BJL]

Re all the talk about missing cogs. My bike has an 11-28 10 speed rear cassette. Those are the only two cogs I know. After 5 years of riding, I still have no idea what exact cogs the rest are. But don't tell me because this way, if I change the cassette for any reason, I won't know what I'm missing

I ride by feel, not numbers. Too hard, shift to bigger cog. Too easy, shift to smaller cog. Until end of cassette is reached.

[human909]

I ride by feel, not numbers. Too hard, shift to bigger cog. Too easy, shift to smaller cog. Until end of cassette is reached.

That is ridiculous! Ride by feel!? How is that possible and even if it is why would you want to do that?

Surely you need to know your speed, your position, your cadence, your power and a whole host of other information to determine whether you should be on cog 14 or 15!

After-all that is a whole 7% difference! Heaven help you if you don't have a 15 and have to put up with a devastating 14% difference in your gearing.

[fat and old]

After-all that is a whole 7% difference! Heaven help you if you don't have a 15 and have to put up with a devastating 14% difference in your gearing.

Damn straight if you're a fat old bastard at the end of his breath! Two cogs up and I almost fall over the bars!

I'd be happy with a 20 sprocket cassette.

[Derny Driver]

While I don't really see any compelling reason for most people to "upgrade" to a 1x setup, I do see it as something of a logical progression. With the ever increasing number of gears on the rear cassette and compact chainrings - triple chainrings have become all but redundant for touring and hybrid bikes. I suppose it's just a natural progression from this for double chainring setups to eventually become redundant for commuter and sportive riders.

You make an excellent point uart.
If manufacturers can get another couple of cogs on the back (say 13 speed) then front rings will be redundant.

[human909]

Damn straight if you're a fat old bastard at the end of his breath! Two cogs up and I almost fall over the bars!

I'd be happy with a 20 sprocket cassette.

Fair enough! From a maintenance and durability perspective I'd prefer to go back to 8speed. Skinny chains don't excite me. (That now makes me sound old!)

But horses for courses.

[bychosis]

While I don't really see any compelling reason for most people to "upgrade" to a 1x setup, I do see it as something of a logical progression. With the ever increasing number of gears on the rear cassette and compact chainrings - triple chainrings have become all but redundant for touring and hybrid bikes. I suppose it's just a natural progression from this for double chainring setups to eventually become redundant for commuter and sportive riders.

You make an excellent point uart.
If manufacturers can get another couple of cogs on the back (say 13 speed) then front rings will be redundant.

Will the weight then be similar to internal geared hubs? Can they be designed without the drivetrain losses to compensate.

[Calvin27]

Will the weight then be similar to internal geared hubs? Can they be designed without the drivetrain losses to compensate.

Easily. The standard cassette design can still be optimised. As much as I hate SramXD drivers, they have their merits and a once piece cassette will be much lighter than a hear hub gear configuration.

[RobertL]

I'm not sure I buy the talk of people not knowing what the front derailleur is for either. Maybe I'm being too cynical though.

My wife is a very occasional bike rider. She has a flatbar bike with a 3x7 setup - the same as every bottom of the range flatbar/commuter/MTB out there.

She understands how to use the gears and what the 3 front chainrings are for. However, I struggle to get her to understand the concept of the 3 chainrings having overlapping gear ranges. She initially thought that she had 21 gears from 1 to 21. Now I don't know exactly what she thinks, but she still doesn't "get it".

We do only ride around nice flat areas, so I may have to take her up and down some hills to teach her

[Jawa]

I’m probably in the “why do we need this” camp. I haven’t ridden 1x though so it would be stupid to cast a strong opinion on its merits
I do however have little faith in any reviewers in the media to give unbias views as they are surly being wooed by the $$ .. then again same goes for pretty my anything

With my own 50-34 / 11-28 setup this has got me thinking though about the redundant cogs and why I still have them. Anything at the extreme ends hardly ever gets touched and quite comfortably can go for hours on the 50 ring middle cogs terrain permitting.

If 1x was to take off or the manufactures were to push it they will need to address the accessibility of changing the cog clusters and in turn having gears dialled in from the outset as most riders are not capable of doing so. Personally speaking though, while I do have redundant cogs I still wouldn’t give them up at the expense of having to faff with changing cog clusters should a particular ride call for a change in gearing

[eeksll]

Re all the talk about missing cogs. My bike has an 11-28 10 speed rear cassette. Those are the only two cogs I know. After 5 years of riding, I still have no idea what exact cogs the rest are. But don't tell me because this way, if I change the cassette for any reason, I won't know what I'm missing

I ride by feel, not numbers. Too hard, shift to bigger cog. Too easy, shift to smaller cog. Until end of cassette is reached.

I likewise do not know what cassette tooth I am in, but I sure as hell know when I shift to an easier gear and is too easy or I shift to a harder gear and its too hard.

My "feel" tells me I want one in between at about that time, one might start to think what middle gear do I need

[Kronos]

But I bet they enjoy it. Why would you care about that?

I don't really care, its a conversation and nothing more, and I don't care for anything beyond a conversation on the matter... It goes deeper than that though if you're really interested. Your money is compensation for a chunk of time out of your life. If you value that bike as much as that chunk of your life you spent doing whatever, that's not really my business and I don't feel like arguing about it. If you want to snap at me for offering you advice that might save your hard earned for something else then its not me with a problem though either.

The bigger problem with cycling is that there is a lot of people with more dollars than sense.

If it's none of your business and you don't care beyond a conversation then why constantly !! BAN ME NOW FOR SWEARING !! can people who do? That's not a conversation. That's just rude.

Oh yeah...I'll take the smallest gaps I can get. Derny is spot on about those missing 14 and 16 cogs. Even I use them heaps.

Nah... its not rude, its an opinion. If you can't handle your packed lunch its not my problem either if you want to throw it around the room. You got offended, you swore at me. Perhaps that's because you see yourself in my comments. But hey, I take no responsibility what so ever for your attitude. Put it away, no one cares if you think you can swear at me. This comment is far too unimportant to let it worry my life.

[g-boaf]

Come on guys, play nicely.

[MichaelB]

Boy some people get really excited about whether some people CHOOSE to have bigger gaps in their rear cassette ....

Almost reminds me of the ‘discussions’ about compact cranks, disc brakes etc ...

If you like it great, if you don’t, then that’s fine as well ....

Sheesh

[ldrcycles]

I'm with Derny Driver on this one, 1x is an incredibly stupid backwards step that will be forced onto the market so the manufacturers have something new and exciting to sell. A workmate's carbon Trek mtb has 1x and he hates it so much he's going to convert it to 2x, and he's far from alone there.

[baabaa]

Yup I gave it a pretty good go with 10 speed 42 (then a 38) 11-36 and found it just made me cranky. I tend not to shift a lot as I don't need to spin when going up big hills but even then found the chain noise (as it traveled the full width of just 10 cogs) unbearable.
Took that bike back to single speed and silent no-wear happiness.
Issue I have is that with a new race type bike based on x1 is the cost to bring it back to x2 in terms of the left hand brake only change to a brifter or shifter, better to have one that can shift and brake and keep it as a zombie shifter but....I guess the industry know better?

[fat and old]

I don't really care, its a conversation and nothing more, and I don't care for anything beyond a conversation on the matter... It goes deeper than that though if you're really interested. Your money is compensation for a chunk of time out of your life. If you value that bike as much as that chunk of your life you spent doing whatever, that's not really my business and I don't feel like arguing about it. If you want to snap at me for offering you advice that might save your hard earned for something else then its not me with a problem though either.

The bigger problem with cycling is that there is a lot of people with more dollars than sense.

If it's none of your business and you don't care beyond a conversation then why constantly !! BAN ME NOW FOR SWEARING !! can people who do? That's not a conversation. That's just rude.

Oh yeah...I'll take the smallest gaps I can get. Derny is spot on about those missing 14 and 16 cogs. Even I use them heaps.

Nah... its not rude, its an opinion. If you can't handle your packed lunch its not my problem either if you want to throw it around the room. You got offended, you swore at me. Perhaps that's because you see yourself in my comments. But hey, I take no responsibility what so ever for your attitude. Put it away, no one cares if you think you can swear at me. This comment is far too unimportant to let it worry my life.

Aye? Swear at you? I said you xxx canned people who spend money in a manner that you disagree with. Simples. Like you, I don't care about 1x, 2x, carbon, steel etc. apart from a hypothetical POV. I just don't call people stupid if they do. If that's swearing at you then fine, I'll cop that and apologise. Enjoy your bike, and be careful of those dodgy shimano brifters. All the best

[Comedian]

I reckon it might be ok for a race team where they can change gearing depending on the stage.

Might be a bit much for jo average though depending on whether he's riding hills or a fast bunch on the flats...