Curious how switching from a 2×10 drivetrain to a 1×11 group like XX1 will affect your gearing? Thanks to Scott at Switchback Bikes, wonder no more. The chart above (click to enlarge) shows how the different XX1 chainrings with that oversized 11-speed cassette stack up, helping you choose the right front chainring(s) for your riding. It was used on their website, by way of a forum post by Daryl Smith.
Makes me (very) curious how many out there are not familiar with Sheldon Brown’s web site and his gear calculator http://sheldonbrown.com/gears/
Personally, I’m addicted to playing this kind of game, so I’m putting together a “proof of concept” bike on a CX frame with 1×10 gearing. Would not know where to start w/o Lennard Zinn’s column. I’m using a Wolf 38t DropStop and an 11×34 10 speed XT and 700c x 35 cx tires.
Intended to be an everyday bike, rain or shine, run errands, play, etc.
@MissedTehPoint
Well, we usually pedal 🙂
@Shreddie
That’s great, you get a 1 tooth lower gearing on the bottom of the range, and then you get a 28T chainring and You basically don’t get squat benefits. only thing that is good the top of the cassette is that you can run a 36T up front and have a bailout gear, but IMO 1:1 ratio is more than enough for anything.
So a 11-40 10sp cassette or 11SP tat goes to the current hub body would be awesome, and more than enough, without forking more than your entire paycheck on a whole grouppo.
@drakche
The pedal circle is approximately half the radius of the tire, so at 1:1 gearing, you’re still working twice as hard as just putting your feet on the ground and walking the bike forward. On some extreme grades, that’s about the gearing I need.
Personally, I prefer the challenge of looking ahead to see if I need to clank it into the small chainring before a steep part.
@missedthepiibt not everyone lives on a goat track. That’s why you can still buy 2x or if you are really keen 3x. Have you looked at the table in the article and do you understand what it’s showing you?
I live in a relatively flat country where the overwhelming majority of riders are moving to 1x because it suits our riding conditions. I guess 1×11 just isn’t your cup of tea.
Fraser – I’m surprised you’ve dropped the chain, I haven’t had any problems with either XX1 or an X0 Type2 rear derailleur with Absolute Black chainring unless a) a stick flew into my chain and bumped it off or b) I wrecked really hard.
All – assuming it works for your riding conditions, don’t forget that a 1x set up drops about half a pound or more from your bike.
Do people really find it so hard to divide two numbers? Do you really need this chart or Sheldon Brown’s calculator to do it? Wow. ‘Cause that’s all this chart is – a list of what happens when you divide two numbers. The fact that this is worthy of any attention whatsoever makes me incredibly sad for humanity.
I was a staunch 2×10 guy, being (OAF=Old as F*ck) and not nearly as fit as most HC riders are and living where almost every ride is pretty steep climbing.
But after spending time on a gear calc looking at the range I could get I gave it a shot (1×10) Wolf Tooth 32 and 42 rings were fastened up.
Surprisingly there is a real advantage in psychology of this switch. Rather than bail to my low 22/24 x 36 on every climb I push the 32×42. There is fitness benefits as a result and measuring my HR average over the identical loops on separate days I notice a small change +3-4 beats on average over the same loops (admittedly anecdotal).
I ordered a RF Next SL crank which allows me to run a 26/28/30/32 in front for real options when I go to the high altitude Sierra climbs.
DH speed is never an issue and I don’t ride on the road to get to trail so high gears are never an issue either. If I had lots of road sections I may want slightly more range of the 2×10.
I am so sold on the 1x now I ordered up 4 other Wolf Tooth sets for the whole families bikes. Casual riders really LOVE the lack of a FD.
Confession from a hold out — Ed at SRAM told me how great XX1 was but I stuck to my guns about big mountains and small gears, I want dual front rings. Well, I just switched from XX (38×27 chainrings) to gripshift XX1 (34t chainring) and I was wrong. It is pretty damn nice.
I ran the gear calcs to select a front ring… but from riding feel, I do not think I have as tall/low of a gear at the extreme ends of the cassette but it is fractional and does not make much difference. What does make a difference is not having the front D, losing a pound, cleaning up the cockpit, no dropped chains, and one less thing to think about when going fast.
I have no intentions of putting a front D on any of my personal MTB’s in the foreseeable future.
SA narrow wide chain ring combined with a clutch style derailleur should make is almost impossible to drop the chain provided correct chainline is created by correct use of bottom bracket spacers, placing the ring on the inside of the spider, and cutting the chain to the correct length.
I was the one who posted this to mtbr and this got posted to Bike Rumor without giving me credit? My name is Daryl Smith and just out of common decency any time you pull charts from other people it is fairly standard to at least credit them for doing it?
My original post on MTBR is below.
I owe MTBR member @drolling an apology. The gear ratio chart was built by him, I didn’t realize it was his chart he had posted here http://forums.mtbr.com/29er-components/xx1-gearing-handy-chart-see-what-front-chain-ring-buy-based-xx-gear-ratios-854970.html
I also owe Tyler and Bike Rumor an apology for not doing my due diligence to make sure the chart was used with permission from @drolling
Thanks, Scott
I posted it last year on MTRB so that everyone else could see it and just wanted to be recognized for doing something cool that people find useful.
When I first got xx1 I looked at all of the gearing calculators but they were annoying to use and with my chart anyone could eyeball what they wanted in 30 seconds and figure out what worked for them. The people in the comments section who are criticizing it don’t realize that explaining a complex math relationship in a simple chart can be very helpful.
MissedThePoint if you look at the chart you will see that if you do a 28 in the front you get the same climbing gear as you get with a 2×10 and lose maybe 2-3mph at the very top end. With that setup I can do 22mph until pedaling maxes out. With a 34 tooth in front I can do maybe 25mph. Don’t forget that the power needed to overcome wind resistance is a cubic function so the power needed to overcome your speed increases dramatically with each incremental mph of top end speed. Personally I have a lot of friends who have gotten seriously hurt going fast downhill. My motto is fast uphill and slow downhill. I have four kids and they need their dad to be mobile.
I regularly climb 20 mile sections with 3k feet in Marin county and have no issues with xx1. I personally dont think Sram knows how to make a front derailleur but they make fantastic rear derailleurs. Eliminating the FD makes a perfect machine which has less parts to break and is practically no maintenance.
Went to 1×9 last year. If I upgrade I’ll go to 1×10 but truth be told I always found on my road bike that more than 9 gears leaves me shifting too much. Less so offroad maybe… but what puzzles me is that these gears, using the big rear cog, put you over a 1 to 1 ratio. Your rear cog is bigger than the front!
I run a 34 uop front and my biggest rear gear is 34. Thought about 36, or even one of those big 42s, but what I wonder is, how do you control your feet? At 1 to 1 I feel wobbly. Enuff people run these combos it must work, but can anyone tell me how?
Thought I knew a lot about gear ratios from a decade of singlespeeding onroad and off but this new stuff is different.
Hi just converted to 1 x11 so 32 and 11-40 on the backits slightly higher geared in low gear maybe 180 mm longer, went out this morning and did notice the difference but it was not great and after half hour it didn’t seem to matter. The 1 shifter and the spread of gears made for good riding and I have to say I’m a convert.
Cost was about $1000 nz$ and I did the change over myself.
Bike Giant Trance 2 26inch wheels the oridginal gearing low gear was 24 x 26
I was riding single track up and down and some roads with steep climbs on them
Cheers G
I have done a couple of Passo Stelvio climbs and recently, this one in Malaysia: http://bikelah.com/index.php?route=information/information&information_id=11
Sure, you might do them on a 1×10 or 11 if you are young and (fool)hardy but most of the bikes I have seen at Stelvio still use triples and you will not do the Malaysian climb unless you put a 22 or 24 tooth front chainring on the crank and a 40-42 on the cassette.
I like my gears and have never had a problem with FD shifting.
Most ride on familiar turf, however, what if your riding somewhere unfamiliar?
your cranking along with your 2×10, front chain ring 38 (big ring) rear cog 21(6th gear) yielding a ratio 1.81
This is comparable to your 1×10 Front 30 rear cog 16 (4th gear) ratio 1.875
You come around a turn, their in front of you is a steep windy climb, replete with bare slippery tree roots!
The only way up, at least for those who like to peddle up, is to grab a big gear, plant your ars in the saddle and dig deep.
With the 2×10, you drop to the small chain ring 24 yielding a ratio of 1.143 you can can try to go to a larger cog as you peddle up, but the drop in the front has maintained some of your momentum.
With the 1×10 you will have to drop/shift to 8th gear or 28 toothed rear cog yodeling a ration of 1.071
This is a down shift of 4 gears. I think we all know what happens when you shift down whilst under power. You usually break the chain as the chain is pulled under great force while the chain is attempting to complete its slide to larger cog.
If you can’t make the downshift of 4 gears to get an appropriate gear for the climb, you’ll have to dismount and hike up. If your on your SS and have a gear low enough to power up – plan knee replacement in elder years – I’ll see you as I speed by on the decent, particularly if it is a shallow/mellow decent where you can peddle to get speed.
just sayin…
my shop guys think im crazy as I have changed out my front ring 4 times searching for that sweet spot for climbing…cant find it. Since switching to a xx1 I climb slower and with a significantly lower HR (15-20bpm slower)…even though my low gear is the same in gear inches as my 3×10 I still have a slow climb and low HR. I love to climb and have data that spans the last 10 years in terms of time and HR. Bottom line is Im 6 mins slower for any 30 minute climb and my legs are always fried… There is more to consider than just gear inches…the fixed lever length of the crank becomes an issue when it is time for a long climb,
Tyler used the wrong front combo for a comparison, unless he meant to conclude XX1 range is better in advance of his research. I cannot find an XX1 combination with a wider range of gears than XX (see below). You can get close on one end or the other or even better climbing gear or sprinting gear but you lose on the other end. Here is another thing, the XX is unchanged from 2010, if they added a 38/10 cassette which would be easy and a 44 front also easy the range would be a lot better.
Here are ratios at 90 RPM
Here is XX that most people ride, not a 24/38 (I have never even seen one of these):
28/36 6.0
42/11 29.4
Here is XX1 28 (better climbing but lose lots of top end):
28/42 5.16 (better for climbing)
28/10 21.5 (lose many top speed gears)
Here is a 32 XX1 (this is closest to XX for climbing, but you lose lots of top end):
32/42 5.85 (pretty close to XX, it’s less than one gear)
32/10 24.6 (lose top end gears equivalent to a 42/13 v a 42/11 on XX)
Here is a 36 XX1 (less climbing gear and less top end):
36/42 6.62 (lose climbing gear to XX)
36/10 27.7 (lose top end gear)
Here is XX1 with a 38 (it’s closest to XX on top end but lose many climbing gears):
38/42 6.93 (lose climbing gears it’s equivalent to a 28/31 on XX v 28/36 available)
38/10 29.2 (just about equal here)
Here is XX1 largest front ring 40 although I have never seen anyone ride a XX1 40:
40/42 7.31 (lose gears for climbing, equivalent to a 28/28 on XX v 28/36)
40/10 30.7 (gain one gear for top end from 11 to 10)
You lose about 200 grams of weight and simplify the bike, but the chains, rings and cassettes wear way faster (ask any bike shop) and cost more. With big hills and fast sprints in races I am not ready to give up ability to climb or sprint for 200 grams, I will just eat less.
We were riding the Whole Enchilada ~30 mile down hill in Moab. 2 of us on 2×10, and one on a 1X11. During the ride, the 1X11 wrecked and bent the dérailleur. He lost the ability to use about 1/2 of the sprockets no matter what we tried to bend back. On a 2X10 you would have had more shifting options. He limped the last 10 miles on what he had. it made for a crappy ride regardless
