Originally Posted by
WalksOn2Wheels
Fast road bikes? Unless you lived in a pancake flat area, I don't think it makes any sense. You're going to lose either high or low end gearing. I guess if you wanted to go for this new 10-50 SRAM Eagle business (which I guess they will be release a road shifter for at some point), you could have a pretty full range, but you'll get large jumps in gearing not generally suited for fast road riding where you try to keep your cadence in a tighter range. I really enjoy the gearing on an 11-25 11 speed cassette myself.
Going to loose either high end or low end depends on what you're comparing it too. I have two 1x10 projects I am putting together, unfortunately at the time of this writing it is not complete so I don't know if I'll like it or not. One is for road bike and the other tri. And they won't be giving up any high or low end range, actually they will improve upon it. For example my current gearing (52/42-13/26) would give a gear inches range of 42.6-105.5 but my new gearing I am piecemealing together (44-11/36) will give me 32.2-105.5 . Some may think the gear spacing would be wider but seeing how I'd only use the small ring after full dropping the cassette to its smallest gear basically I had 7 gears. I hate how out of order trying to use all the gears would be... a 1x10 just makes everything neat and in order, no fussin' with a whole 'nother shifter just for one extra gear, and if your putting it together from scratch like me it saves having to buy and install and tune all that stuff.
I'm worried about the RD though... some people say you need the clutch type RD some say they have no problems with regular. I'm going to try a DA7800 first and see how it works out. I don't have a bash guard either, but that would be easy to add if I find I loose the chain. Might even help the looks if I can find a polished silver one, since the NW chainring I could not get in silver to match the rest of the drivetrain. Anyone have any suggestions for a polished/silver 130bcd bash guard?