bonz50

title says it all.

what cassette would you use? what about chain ring??

RPK79

I'd be on it like white on rice if I was building a bike today.

46t chainring

I don't know the cassette ranges offhand but something in an 11-40ish range would be peachy.

datlas 

If I lived in Florida.

Jarrett2

I made the switch a few hundred miles ago. Digging it.

PepeM

If I were to get a second road bike, one of them would probably have a 1x drivetrain.

Drew Eckhardt 

I'd consider 1x11 if I lived someplace flat with no wind and on probation for the remainder of my life with the restriction I not leave that area.

Only cassettes with one tooth jumps through the 19 cog are suitable for road riding, which means

11-12-13-14-15-16-17-18-19-21-23
or
12-13-14-15-16-17-18-19-21-23-25

50x13 is an OK top gear, so 42x11-23 or 46x12-25 would be my choice.

Jarrett2

It got me up this hill
14258292_10208768408181013_6965133094501295074_o.jpg

chaadster

I'd consider a 1x11 if I lost my left hand in a tragic bowling accident.

RPK79

I don't think you quite understand how a 1x works. The trick is to get a wide range cassette for the hills.

MRT2

I might consider it. Thinking maybe a 44 tooth chainring, along with a 12 - 42 cassette.

big john

For a mountain bike, yes.

Seattle Forrest

That's amazing! You can climb a hill with a steel bike?

cthenn

Explain the fascination with 1x. I don't get it. Mind you I have a 1x gravel bike and it's fine but I'm not head over heels in love with it. And on a road bike I just don't see the use. Huge cog jumps, more limited terrain...for what? All so you don't have to shift a fd? I barely understand it for off road use I would never consider it for on road...

Jarrett2

PepeWhyForrest, you're just adorable

Drew Eckhardt 

Then it'd have horrible spacing for flat ground. If I was willing to live with that I'd have stuck to 52-42 x 14-28 6 cogs and saved thousands of dollars.

I don't think there's a point to 1X gearing on road bikes with few exceptions:

• Climbing time trials with no bike weight minimum.
• Creative accounting where you only consider the middle ring of the triple, treating the outer rings as spares used only for mountains and wind storms.

seypat

IF.....,IF the electronic shifting got so good with a smart derailleur system I think you would see the industry go back to the future. FD shifting is what is holding it back now. If the system was so good that you just pressed up or down(no more FD shifting) like the 1x you are talking about then we would see a triple in front and 4 or 5 cogs in back. The cogs/ring system would be specific to each other to get the desired gearing. No more 50/34 in front, 11/34 in back yada yada. Instead, you would just have a gearing system that gives you the desired range and equal jumps between gears. The weight issue would even itself out. Those 11, 12 cog cassettes with 40t pie plates just take the weight from the front to the back. This would solve the limitations faced with the width of the rear hub, disk brakes, etc. The rear hub could go back to around 115mm. Then the arms race would start all over again. The industry would be reborn again with all of the new products to sell. Your shifting thinking would be the same,(up or down) but the system would be way more compact. You heard it from me first.

Related to that, if the smart derailleur system got so good it could be linked to a computer with adjustable cadence preferences. Set your desired preferences and the smart system shifts for you. Think about the auto transmission in your car with the manual gate or the paddle shifters. That is where the bicycle will be headed.

Jarrett2

What is acceptable spacing for flat ground?

Jarrett2

For reference, this is what I'm using:

RPK79

Probably half tooth jumps.

Something like this with a 46t ring would be perfectly acceptable.

11,12,13,15,17,19,22,25,28,32,36

I have a 46/34 11/28 on my road bike now and I'm almost never in the little ring unless I'm doing a lot of climbing and even then if I had a little more range on the cassette I wouldn't need the 34 ring.

Jarrett2

I was worried about the gaps as well, but I find they aren't there.

As the chart shows, I do start having some jumps after the "8th" gear, but I've found I have to be actively pedaling down a -7% hill before I feel the need to shift into the 8th gear. So jumps there are not that noticeable to me.

Drew Eckhardt 

One tooth jumps to the 19 cog.

12-19 or 13-21 8 cogs
12-21 or 13-23 9 cogs
12-23, 13-25, or 13-26 10 cogs
11-23 or 12-25 11 cogs

TimothyH

I guess everything is relative.

I ride 48-16 fixed gear in the hills of North Georgia and would consider a 1x11 if I wanted to to relax a bit.


-Tim-

RPK79

I ride a 46-19 single speed occasionally. It's fine for hills up to 6% or so but of course spins out around 22 MPH.

Maybe it's a 48-19... IDK.

TimothyH

The fastest I ever went for real was 133 RPM at 26+ MPH. I did it for about 20 seconds in a paceline with roadies.

Back on topic, not trying to derail the thread, but I've been riding my road bike more and have wondered about splitting the difference between a fixed gear and a road bike with a 1x so this thread is interesting to me.


-Tim-

DXchulo

Maybe for a commuter bike. I've had my FD cable freeze up in the winter. The problem is that 1x isn't necessarily cheaper as of right now. Simplicity is nice and all, but FD problems are rare for me.