I put over a thousand miles on a non-ramped inner chainring on a road bike I set up as a 1x1l without a drop, even without a clutch derailleur. I did change to a Wolf Tooth narrow-wide primarily because I wanted to switch to a 42t from a 39t and I thought that a bit of extra protection was worth it. For smooth surface riding, as long as your return chain tension is good you should be ok, but as [MENTION=84924]JonathanGennick[/MENTION] points out, why not go N-W if buying new.