PeteHski

Yeah it will all be fine. Bikes tend to come with gearing pretty well suited to their intended application. There is rarely a need to start messing with different chainring options straight out of the box.
The non-X version does look like a better choice for road riding.

dvai

She is quite fit but not a "monster". So as implied we are just being hysteric. However, we are spending a good amount of money and if we have the option to pick.. why not? My experience is only with road sets.
So for my future reference, what would be the "real life" practical differences in a 40t front with 11-52 rear cassette versus a 48/32 front with a 11-32 cassette?

ClydeClydeson

The best way to get faster would be to get faster. Seriously, if she learns to 'spin' at a higher cadence then 40-11 on a 700x38 tire is plenty fast enough. A cadence of 100rpm (considered by many to be a good target) would have her travelling at almost 47 km/h (29.6mph)

Maelochs

Okay .... not everyone Wants to spin at 90 or 100 rpm. As I stated elsewhere (I think) my Cannondale tourer has 48-38-28 rings and a 14-34 cassette .... and at 48x14 I definitely want taller gearing sometimes ..... because I have to spin faster than I prefer to get to the speed I want to travel. Not sure why this would be a difficult concept.

For most people 48x11 is all the gear they would ever Need to go fast, and few casual riders would ever "spin it out (hit 120 rpm or something.) It is all about comfortable range, and power vs revs.

The biggest difference, IMO, between the 1x with a huge pie-plate is that very few riders are going to climb hills that demand that gearing .... maybe if they ride gravel, and are climbing a sandy or gravelly hill. On the road? Most riders get by with 34x34 and never even use that much.

The double up front and the tighter cassette gives a very wide range of gearing (32x32, like 34x34, is One-to-one, which is a Low gear unless you climb mountains a lot, in which case you'd build big legs and lungs and it would still be a low gear eventually.)

What the double and the tighter cassette gives you is more usable gears, with less jump between gears. This means that it is easier to find a "sweet spot" where the ridder is spinning as fast as she wants and pushing as hard as she wants and traveling the speed that she wants. With a 1x, there are huge jumps between gears, so if one gear is just a little bit too high or low ... the next one is Much too high or low, instead of being almost just right.

1x is fine for off-road where you don't want to lose the time and momentum shifting the front ring, and where efficiency is lower already because of changing surfaces, softer surfaces, and generally more terrain shifts. In my limited experience, when riding off-road there are a lot of times when I would rather push really hard up a short hill and spin really fast down the backside, rather than shift a couple time on the way up and a couple more on the way down, because I have more than enough to worry about, picking the right lines, maintaining traction, jumping up bumps .... and after blasting down the far side there will be some more humps and bumps and sharp turns and soil changes coming up in rapid succession. I have plenty to do besides trying to find exactly the right ratio.

On the road, I might shift for a very slight, 30-foot incline because once I find that sweet spot of revs and pressure, i want to stay there. Sure, I could just power up the incline .... but shifting is so quick, and the ratios are close enough, that one quick click keeps me right where i want to be.

This also matters a lot when either carrying a big load, struggling home at the end of too long a ride, or facing a stiff wind--or any combination thereof. For me, sometimes finding just the right gear makes the difference between being sore and tired, and Really suffering and being miserable.

PeteHski

It's mainly that she will have closer spaced gear choices on the 48/32. As you don't live anywhere very hilly the lowest 32-32 gear should be plenty low enough for any climbing. At the other end the 48-11 will be plenty fast enough for any downhills.
The 11-52 cassette gives a wider range of gearing, which would be really useful if you were doing a lot of hilly off-road riding with steep climbs. But the gaps between gears are also wider, so she might find it harder to find just the right gear when riding on the road.
Personally I don't think either setup would cause any major practical issues. Some people prefer the simplicity of a single chainring. Others are more fussy about having very small gaps between gears. Personally I prefer a wider gear range, but it is hilly where I live and there are virtually no flat roads.
My road bike has a 50/34 up front and 11-34 cassette and works almost anywhere on road. My mountain bike has a 30T front and 10-50T cassette and works everywhere off-road! If I ride it on road it's actually fine too. I just don't use the full gearing range.

SoSmellyAir

In addition to the excellent points by PeteHski and Maelochs about gearing range vs. gaps, an 11-32 cassette and the requisite medium cage derailleur are also much less expensive than an 11-52 cassette and the requisite long cage derailleur (with clutch) to replace if the cassette is worn out or the derailleur is damaged. However, I have been similarly shopping for a 1X hybrid bike for my son because I also appreciate the elegant simplicity of a 1X setup for casual riding,

PeteHski

Yeah I like 1x setups too (especially off-road). I'm thinking of going 1x on my next road bike too with the new Campag Ekar 13 speed. I could run that with a 42T chainring and 9-42T cassette. Campag have really nailed the gaps at the higher end gear range on this setup. 1 tooth gaps across the top 6 gears and then progressively larger gaps for climbing. Perfect for my use on lumpy terrain. With a 2x setup I find myself constantly switching chainrings on steep climbs and dips, which is a bit of a pain and tends to promote excessive grinding in the big ring just to avoid a front downshift. I prefer my 1x mtb setup in that regard. Just clicking up and down the cassette as required.