"Gear Range", sure, but from a high performance functional standpoint any one chainring bike can't even compete with a double. How many guys were running a single ring bike on the pro circuit last year?

I don't know, but I will infer zero. Still, what is practical for them isn't necessarily what is practical for us. Is there a weight penalty for the 1x systems? I expect so. But I hope to see advancements. There have been many so far. Funnily enough, the bikes I ride most frequently have triple cranks.

In mountain biking and cyclocross, I think almost all of them.

If a pro gravel biking thing ever gets going, single ring drivetrains will dominate there too I bet.

Personally, I’ll keep choosing what works for me, not what the pros ride.

I love triples! One of my triple equipped bikes has an %805 gear range, that will never happen with a single. Singles have their place, my fat bike and my MTB both have single drivetrains and they function well, but they don't quite have the range of a triple and they have bigger gaps between gears.

I meant to specify asphalt racing :-)

I too chose what works for me, but I was specifically talking about function, the double will reign supreme for some time in the road bike world, in a sport where the most microscopic of advantages are always pursued nobody would be riding doubles if there wasn't a functional advantage to them.

Man, that's such a nice setup. How well do the tires roll on asphalt?

Thank you! The tires are pretty soft and don’t roll too great on the pavement, they do hook up awesome on the dirt though. They are Panaracer Gravel King SK 700x38

Good to know, thanks. Looking at its cousins, it seems like the regular Gravel King is a pretty good compromise between road/gravel...but at that point I might as well simply use Paselas :foo: I suppose the Gravel King either rolls better or is more durable...or both!(?)

All I know for sure is that when common cassettes go to "13", that is when the low-rider bikes will finally at long last start having at least a rear derailer.

It's a different sort of design.

Paselas use a thin non-tubeless road casing. If you choose the version with a protection layer, it's a sub-tread belt, intended to shield against particularly sharp objects on the road.

GK slicks use a somewhat thicker casing that makes for easy tubeless setup and should be tougher against sidewall abrasion/cuts, relevant on chunky gravel.

:popcorn

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...73f30d3014.jpg
52*11-32 red cassette.. Only used the 32 once... And no weight penalty.. Regular force WiFli derailleur but 52 is narrow wide. The penalty is quicker wear wear.

I bet experimentation with tire pressure would make the Gravel King tires good for pavement. I could be wrong.
@jackbombay, tell us about that 850% drivetrain.

Yeah, I've done my share of riding over variously-chunky "gravel" on my 1" and 28c Paselas. The tread cap seems fine, wraps around well, but the thin sidewalls show signs of the outer ply literally wearing away. That means that I've been just plain lucky, that none of those abrading rocks were very sharp!

Panaracer has tires that seem to more or less be a Pasela with reinforced sidewalls, which would be a good road and gravel tire indeed.
I'm heading out on my 1" Paselas just now, fingers crossed since I love venturing off road on my Pro Tour and hope that my good luck isn't all behind me.
If it wasn't for the frankly severe chunkiness of the trails that I often find myself on, the Paselas would surely be adequate for what often passes for "gravel".

Two versions of Gravel Kings.

SKs have the knobs and the others are slick.

I ride both and the standard works great in the 700x35 size on our cruddy Twin Cities roads.

We prefer to think of our city streets as "practice" gravel roads.

I had VM once, and a few CC of antibiotics cured it.

These just need to be displayed together. Kind of a pretty set.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...58f9e6815.jpeg

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...73f30d3014.jpg

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...a493569c96.jpg

That looks like a sweet bike for sure!

But, I like the longest steepest hills I can find so that bike is one that would never be in my stable.

%805

Its on my tall bike, triple up front, 54 big ring, 39 middle ring 24 granny ring. 11-36 cassette, here is a pic of it with a close ratio cassette on it, 11-28, the 11-36 of course swaps right on but its currently on my carbon road bike, here is a pic,

I actually just did a full overhaul on my tall bike, my frame builder buddy built me a proper fork with disc tabs for it, and he added disc tabs to the rear when I was at his shop last summer. My old fork had a 1" steer tube, and I upgraded to a 1 1/8" steer tube so I had to chop the old head tube off and add a new one. Went with some plain jane Deore hydraulic MTB disc brakes, 160mm rotors, catalyze automotive paint too, I also painted a bunch of stuff black, the old rear derailleur was SOOOOO sloppy, a "Mega 9" shimano long cage from 2008, and I found a NOS one on ebay that was even black, shifting is so crispy now! I'm pretty happy with how it all came out. 700x32 tires.

https://i.postimg.cc/pXbyq8RH/7-A014...39-C08-B21.jpg

(54/11)/(24/36) is 7.36.

I live in Toronto... There are no really big hills here...it's not because I'm an excellent cyclist...

Looks like I screwed up my math in the past!

No one said there'd be math.

I bought a used frame and built a 1X about 3 years ago, it’s been great. A little info from the SRAM 1X micro guide.


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...0041a01cbe.png
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...f86c180625.png