Originally Posted by
tarwheel
Some of you guys are either over-thinking this, or I'm missing out on a whole lot! All of my bikes have 9-speed Shimano groups, with 50-34, 52-39, 52-39-30 and 50-34-24. They all work fine for me. The triples are on my touring bikes on which I might be carrying heavier loads. The compact double is on my cyclocross bike, and I'm about to put another compact on sport touring frame that I recently picked up.
The only gearing combinations that didn't work for me were a single-speed that just about destroyed my knees, and a 1x9 with 42 chainring and 12-27 cassette. On the 1x9, I found that I was actually having to shift more often than with my doubles and triples. There are a lot of hills around here, and I was pretty much using the entire range of the cassette on almost every ride. However, with my doubles or triples, I often can simply shift the big ring on hills without shifting up and down the cogs on the cassette.
For me, going from a lifetime of multi-chainrings to a 1x setup requires learning to forget about the front. Still not quite used to the idea of no front shifting, and once in a while think it's time to shift the front. The XT 1x11 drivetrain shifts so smoothly and quickly, with up to 4 cogs (smaller to larger) at a time, that you're always in the right gear. No break in cadence, and shifting under load works great. Having used older generations of trigger shifters, the latest XT stuff requires much less force to shift, so running up and down the cassette is almost effortless.