We know that you all have been waiting with bated breath (yes that's the right spelling) to see what the final details of our grountain and groad bikes, but supply chain issues have been nailing us there, like everyone else. I'll let Mike give details on his bike, but the fork in the road came for me and I took it. 2x derailleurs became available late last week, and I bought them. Since the long cage rear derailleur in an AXS setup is 1x only, and the 2x compatible mid cage rear derailleur has a 36t max cog capacity, it forces you to go one way or another. Going 42/36 as the easiest gear in VT is still a bit tall (34/28 has proved brutal on a few occasions) so that doesn't work, and I've previously tried a 38t front ring for 1x and found 38/11 completely deficient for fast group riding and don't expect 38/10 to be demonstrably better.
This framed it as either 1x with the long cage derailleur or 2x with the medium cage. I could go short cage (33t max) but there seems no penalty for going mid versus short, and I can see a lot of times when fatigue or grade or the fact that my birthday cakes now use Roman numeral candles would make the extra couple of teeth on the cassette very helpful. 1x would be 42t front, 10-44 rear for the All Road-rimmed gravel wheels and 10-36 for the Cafe Racer-rimmed road wheels. 2 would be 50/34 front and 10-36 for the All Roads and 10-30 for the Cafe Racers.
With the way I use bikes, this might come down to a splitting of hairs. The Vermont Overland and its ilk are the closest I will come to racing this year, but mostly I ride alone or with small groups. Fast road group rides, while I do so miss them, aren't really a thing where I am. But my terrain goes from ultra flat in RI to ultra not flat in VT, and having what you need for both ends of that is nice. 1x with 42 and 10-44 gets you to either end, but some of those gaps get big, and as Mike and I discussed I'm a pretty precious about cadence sensitivity. That's a huge bonus for 2x.
The benefits to 1x are slightly lighter overall weight, less expense, and no front shifting. It's gotten better, and people have learned how to tune it better, but SRAM's front shifting has never been on anyone's all star team. Electronic should sort this out dead cold, but there are a few scars from inopportune front shifting garbage takes.
Supply chain issues forced my hand - I have reservations for the blanket of decisions I might make, and the 2x derailleurs came available this weekend with today as the deadline for fishing or cutting bait. If the shifters had come available instead, I could have kicked the can down the road a piece, but derailleurs don't let you do that. Knowing that my next chance at them might be October, I went 2x. If 1x comes in soon and/or I get cold feet about 2x, I will be able to get out ahead by selling the 2x. But I think I'm all set with the right decision here. So the tally of full and final drive train parts for the Crux sees Rival AXS derailleurs added to Force crank and Red calipers.
The 18" of snow we got in Newport this weekend makes this whole conversation seem very conceptual indeed. Sunday's Zwift workout was done with a snow shovel instead of an indoor trainer.
10 comments
I still do not get 1X. My perspective is from a flat-land criterium racer where 1 cog jumps between gears rule the day. I just don’t understand why you would sacrifice small jumps in cog sizes for the convenience of a 1X setup. I have just started to get into gravel with my 2x cross-bike and I am faced with actually having to climb with a few upcoming kermesse events that I have signed up for. I know that I need to get a bigger cassette 12-29 36/46 versus a 12-25 36/46 .. which is fine .. but I sure wouldn’t want to do it with a 1×.
I’ve done no research on this but: After having bagged on SRAM front shifting for more than a decade, it would appear that Shimano owns the patents on all of the simple ways to design a good front mech.
Which makes SRAM’s struggles on that score and their early move to 1x more understandable…
David – I wasn’t too worried about top end with the 1x, but I was worried about gaps. 13 makes that somewhat better, but an important barrier against Ekar (for me at least) is that several hubs don’t come in it. Plus I really just want to change wheels from one mode to the other and nothing else.
Matt – Unquestionably. That’s why TT guns use 56t chainrings – so that they can turn a huge gear on like 56/14 or whatever, and be toward the middle of the cassette with a straight chain. Bending the chain less over larger cogs is more efficient, as is a straighter chain.
Dave, With the ever decreasing size of the small cogs, is there ever a point where there is a loss of drivetrain efficiency from having such a small cog? It just seems like the transfer of power from a chain pulling over, say, a 12 or 13 tooth cog would be different than for a chain pulling over a 9- or 10-tooth cog. Or are there physics at work that I am not thinking about?
A conundrum for sure. Ekar x13 ? It gives you 42 × 9 (yes 9!) so top end not an issue. Front is 38T, 40T, 42T or 44T. You will need to change chains though as I found it – but the new 13spd chain uses a quick link. 38T to 42 probably not low enough for monster steeps – might prefer the 44 × 10. Anyway – I’m armed with 2 wheelsets and 2 chainrings and chains for my Ritchey Swiss Cross. Lot of choices!