54t - 11/36
XX rd.
Chainkeeper is only slightly lighter than the sram red fd I used back in the dark, dark days of 2x10.

Incidentally, did any of you know that the plates of a 2011 sram red fd can be cut into teeny tiny little pieces with school scissors?

The 2012 "yaw" fd is a little stockier. It would at least require office grade shears.

Genius, sir!

I honestly tried front derailleurs this year. I do a lot of climbing after all. But once you've lived without a front derailleur, you just can't ever go back.

If you enjoy algebra, that particular set up yields the range of standard road front gearing with an 11-26 cassette. Plus I have that extra little edge at the top end, since it is a 54, after all.

Just watch those last steps. They're big ones!

Big gear jumps in there, have much trouble keeping in your sweet spot cadence wise?

Interesting, but what's the advantage?

Glad it works for you.

If I tried to live without a front derailleur, there would be a few times a year that I just wouldn't go forward.

Sounds like you have some quality scissors.

A few advantages:
I will not drop a chain one time this year.
Not once (and this may be credited to the toucan-bill shaped chainkeeper, which is truly is genius, for the success or failure of a top-notch 1x10 rests with the quality of the chainkeeper) will my peace be destroyed by the sound of chain-rub from crank or frame flex. And I have many sweet spots, friends.
During group rides I will gain 10 feet on you every single time you switch rings.
And ten more feet while you realize you are now in too high or too low a gear.
The sweetest advantage of all: elimination of unnecessary thought.

Question:
What 2 vehicles in the world have TWO transmissions?
Answer:
Over-the-road trucks, and modern bicycles.

That is really all that need be said on the topic of front derailleurs.

Disadvantages:
mainly revolve around the staggering amount of work required to do it correctly. An insane amount of labor that went into this. Frankly, no one would, or even should, be willing to endure that.

Cassettes, chainrings, cranks, and bottom brackets are not made for 1x10, none of them. (Unless you want to go with a track crank and then spend 9 weeks on the internet trying to find a 3/32 144bcd). All have to be modified.

That is a very real disadvantage. And a big one. For that reason alone, I would not recommend a 1x10 to anyone. For the majority of the peoples of the world, it would be very, very bad idea.

someone built a "climbing" Scott here before with 1x30ish ring @ the front. Cant remember who it was.

Wow...you actually made changing gears on a modern bicycle sound hard. Reminds me of those infomercials where they're trying to sell you a 'better' knife or something, and they show some poor lady "LOOK HOW HARD IT IS TO CUT THIS TOMATO!" *awkwardly stabs*

Perhaps only a SRAM user would come up with such a solution?

Kroger.
They are damn good.

Perhaps only a SRAM user would come up with such a solution? [/QUOTE]

I have a peculiar relationship with sram components, no doubt.
And tomatos are bad for you.


A beautiful day for riding, so I am now going to go rip my hip joints out of socket by making inappropriately large gear transitions while I try to make sense of vegetable-knife metaphors. Peace to all.

Sweet. I want to build a 1x10 town bike.

You guys hear that sound? Grrrrrrriiiiiiiiiinnnnnndddddd. XXXXXX-chain = chain wear.

Look...if you like it, all that's matters. But there is a reason why bicycles have 2 and sometimes 3 rings in front.
You just never learned to shift.
Btw...I run 1 X 9 on my 29er and like it although probably with a better chainline than what you have...if...you have a double crankset with inner ring removed..you didn't say.

I had a 1x9 setup on a flat bar road bike (46T x 12/25 (or 11/26 for hilly rides)) and it worked nicely once I used the inner ring on the crank and had an aluminum chain guard on the outer spot. Did centuries on it, and had all the gearing I needed, and had good cadence options no matter where I was.

Your gearing sounds annoying to me, but it is all personal preference, as is the aesthetics. Your scissor worked chain dolphin, combined with the pie platter in the back, looks silly, IMO.

EDIT: what is the benefit of gaining 10 feet in a group ride? If it is a group ride, then isn't the purpose to be in the group?

Yeah, I'd love to see chainline shots in both the biggest and smallest cogs.

He attached a pic of an FSA SL-K crank with 54T Dura-Ace chainring mounted in the outer ring position.

I think he's pranking us.

I had a similar setup on my old TT bike, 54 up front, 11-23 in the back for racing, and I'd swap in a 48 front for training. It had 650 wheels, so the gearing wasn't too ridiculous. It was a fun bike.

I am not sure honestly. I believe he has a std size double with 130 BCD with DA 54t ring pasted to the outer position with inboard chainring removed. Translation? Crappy chainline with larger rear cog positions.
In truth, this isn't such a bad set up if he were to pick up a dedicated single chainring crank with chainline closer to the BB shell. Some purists believe and they maybe right that a 10s cassette with single chainring crank is too wide to run with anything approaching a clean chainline on the bigger rear cogs. A counterpoint to this is...it depends largely on how the bike is ridden.If big cogs are bail out only and not ridden on a sustained basis...then probably OK...tho not ideal.
Honestly I would consider a 1 X 10 on my personal roadbike. The reason I don't do it...is I ocassionally need the climbing inches with smaller front ring...big issue is, I prefer tighter cassette spacing and believe I would give up too much in performance to my aggressive riding buddies...the opposite of what the OP believes.

I <3 my 42t/12-30 1x9. It is cross-chaining waiting to happen, and I think my comfort level ends at 1x9 - just more work to do on the back when rolling on hilly terrain.

(campag --)

At least for me, the low half of that cassette would see some fair use while the upper couple of gears would be like new.

I agree with you on the spacing. Tight is the way to go for a group ride. I never see the need to switch chainrings in a paceline. If I'm switching chainrings, it's because things are turning fairly seriously uphill and the paceline is going to fall apart (edit: has fallen apart!) anyway.

(rt --)

Are you using a bar end or dt shifter on that? Levers look brake-only.

I've got a 1x8 on my commuter bike, but it's an IGH so I'm cheating. Chainline is perfect perfect on that bike. There is something to be said for the simplicity but it's not the right tool for a group ride.

OP: "I honestly tried front derailleurs this year. I do a lot of climbing after all. But once you've lived without a front derailleur, you just can't ever go back."

hear! hear!.

best thing i ever did, cyclingwise, was ditching, for good, my FDs in 1995. second best thing i ever did is a tie between dumping my '94 cannondale hybrid and my cycling computer.

https://imgur.com/a/YET5a

Thank you, post of the day.

Sram has introduced 1x11 (xx1) for MTB.

Might be easier to get here from there.