Going from 1x to 2x (for gravel and in general)

[RacerJRP]

I really tried to like the wide-range 1x drivetrain on my gravel bike, but it sucked. Just always in the wrong gear.

Love my 2x gravel and all-road setups. 1x for CX and MTB make perfect sense and have been setting up that way for 15+ years. I can even get behind 1x for the vast majority of TT race bikes. Road, all-road, and gravel are still best served by 2x IMO.

[GregL]

MTB 1X = good. CX 1X = good. Gravel (the very hilly variety in my area) 1X = not so good. For a flat-rolling gravel course, I could see 1X working well. But the combination of double-digit grade uphills, long and/or fast down downhills, and flat-rolling sections in CNY make 2X preferable. Especially for racing.

Greg

[robt57]

I've run 28/40, 28/42, and 30/46. I like the low gears when needed. But especially for the road part of all road I find I am running cross chained a lot, anyone else?


The upside is the road part of allroad a 40-42 is enough for me as a 67 year old. I don't try to go faster down hill anymore. But rarely ride with anyone anymore either...

[thwart]

Originally Posted by prototoast

I'm glad it works for you, but it's crazy to me that one can have three chainrings and still such a low min/max range. This is basically the same range as a 42 chainring with an 11-42 cassette--which is standard on stock builds, but something I find a little lacking.

I hear you, but I can climb the > 10% grade steep, short stuff I encounter with a 26:27 low… still better than 42:42… and having tried it, I just hate bigger gear gaps. And front shifting with 10 tooth chainring differences is very smooth.

For the majority of my off-road riding with this bike, that middle 36 chainring is close to perfect.

[benadrian]

Originally Posted by robt57

I've run 28/40, 28/42, and 30/46. I like the low gears when needed. But especially for the road part of all road I find I am running cross chained a lot, anyone else?

I have a 46/30 with an 11-34 11s cassette on my commuter bike. I've often found that my easy cruising gear is either in the big ring maybe 6-7-8 cogs up, or in the little right about 3-4 cogs up. So yeah, I kind of end up a little cross chained quite often.

[benb]

I have a 30x11-50 on my Trek Farley.

Top gear with the 27.5"x4.5" tire hits about 20.5mph at 90rpm.

I spin that thing out pretty regularly the time and I spend a ton of time riding in the teeny weeny cogs. I'm definitely concerned about the wear on them. It's comical going down almost any descent on pavement or a fire road type thing.

But... I use the 30x50 a lot in the woods on really steep climbs and that bike is geared exactly correctly for snow, mud, beach sand, dunes, etc..

I think I saw Apex Eagle has a 40x11-50 option where it uses MTB cassette and/or derailleur (electronic or mechanical) and is intended for gravel. Maybe it's OK, 40x50 still seems very low for anything that is vaguely intended to be called a "road", and those bikes weigh 50% of what my MTB does.

Also on my MTB I feel like I have to religiously clean out anything that gets into the cogs.. leaves can rapidly build up and the tiny cogs are so small it seems like it doesn't take much for them to make things start acting weird.

[meyatt]

Both are good, but I think some caveats for me personally.

I was on a GRX Di2 11 speed build that was 50/34 to 11-40 XTR (also had 48/31 before that) and in general the 2x was nice as there was pavement to the gravel, some longer flat sections where the top end was nice — however, there would be times when you're kinda between the big ring and the small ring you need to just plan ahead a bit more or know the terrain decently well.

I'm actually switching over to 44t to 10-44 (might even go slightly larger on the chainring but will start there), because I found myself just sort of stuck in the middle enough times to want to experience a different end of it.

If you've got a lot of pavement, flat stretches, groomed gravel, or it doubles as a road bike, I think 2x is a good move.

With Di2 I had a lot of confidence I could make those fairly aggressive front derailleur changes and never drop the chain… with SRAM, ehhhhh I'd definitely think twice based on my experience riding SRAM 2x on road to ever try that on gravel.

I'd make the choice based on where I live and what combination keeps me in the middle of the cassette most often.