Originally Posted by Caliper

"Great" on road to singletrack? That's a really tall order even if you have flat terrain. I honestly think even a 2x can only be *great* on half that (ie: road and gravel OR gravel and singletrack) but can be good if you are willing to accept some compromise on either end. 1x will compromise on both.


First, you're lacking top end. 40x11 @ 110 rpm on 700x44's = 33mph. So I'm spinning out early on gravel and really early on road. This is a huge dealbreaker to me.


Second 40x42 is 26.5 gear inches on the same tires. This is actually a lower low end than I usually run for gravel but a pretty high gear on a number of the hills on my local singletrack (hey, you claimed singletrack also). Especially when they are covered in pine needles and you need to apply the power smoothly, anything short of a fatbike tire will spin the tires loose with this gearing since you'll be mashing. My current gearing for offroad is about 20 inches on the low end.


Sorry, I've ridden 1x a bit and spent a lot of time on rides with other guys who have it. There isn't a single ride where the 1x riders aren't either spinning out on the downhills or running out of gearing on uphills. I mean, if you're comparing 1x to 2x7 or something then sure, 1x can cover the same range with similar steps, but a 2x with the same number of cogs in the cassette will always have better options than a 1x.