It's time we had that 1x talk, Can it work for you? 

Chapters: 1:51 The two big issues 4:07 Why I did it 8:44 Numbers (To help you decide)

From a guy who works 90% with people who speak other languages, your english is pretty good lol

That level of organization in your videos is superb👌

Excellent video 👍👍 Your explanation made me realize that I actually don’t care at all whether I ride 1x, 2x, or fixed - as long as I’m outside and the bike is under me then all is well 🤗😜 So thanks!!

Probably the best reason I can think of switching to 1x is not having a front derailleur.

Your English is not sketchy man it’s great

Your english is great and much better than my Swedish or Japanese!!!. Dont be that hard on yourself!!!

I had my 1x gravel bike on the roof rack of my car yesterday and someone drove up next to me and yelled “HOW DO YOU LIKE 1x!??!”. I rubbed my chin thoughtfully and said “Still getting used to the huge gaps”

Love this topic, which is really two: what are the pros and cons of 1x and how to choose your gear ratio. We have been working on a automated calculator for finding the best gear ratio which will give you a recommended setup from a few basic variables....but I have been distracted. You have just encouraged me to dust it off again. Cheers from UK

I am 61 , I dont ride fast once above 20mph I'm rolling. I have just converted my bike to 1 X . I'm using 28 chainring and 11-42. It suits me and I like the simplicity. The big jumps arent a problem as they are in the low gears , by the time I am using those I just spin and chill and sometimes almost die :-)

I tried one by four years ago, and I loved everything about it, simplicity, clean look,i was able to use all the gears, and few months ago tried double crankset again and for some reason could never find the right gear,so I went back to one by. I use mostly 44 NW chainring and 11-36 cassette

No worries about the top speed here ... I'm 74 and grabbing the brake lever on the downhills .... Di2 with 36t on the crank and 11t-36t Cassette ... loving it !!

Your english is excellent, and your organization is spot on. Thanks!

The bikecalc website was invaluable when setting up my 2x and 1x for gravel. My 1x is 42 × 10-42 (Rival)and my 2x is 46/33 × 11-32 or 11-34(Ultegra). I can ride both and adapt to the cadence changes easily with my only problem being switching from the Shimano to the Sram shifting action...but after a few miles it's second nature again. Love your videos...Keep up the great production and content.

Great video explaining the details and your reasoning for a 1x setup. We are pretty flat around here, and one of my bikes even sports a 1x9 setup with an 11-36 cassette and 48t chainring.

A good explanation. I tried 1x with a 42 with an 11-42 cassette but I did notice the gaps. Where I live there is a lot of flat road between gravel sections and those flat sections always showed up the missing cog for a comfortable travelling cadence. I now have the Praxis Alba 48/32 with Shimano RX long cage derailleur and 11-34 cassette. I love it for both gravel and road rides (two wheelsets) and if I run out of higher gears on downhills then it’s the gear god’s way of telling me to coast.

I'm feelin a Mr. Rogers groove, just being neighborly and trying to make the world a better place. Thanks for another great video with pertinent content. "Please, won't you be my neighbor"

Super helpful for anyone considering ditching a ring or those already on 1x who're thinking about changing things up (me)

This is a great video, really helped be select the drivetrain on my new bike. I think I'll be going for a 1x11 with a 40 tooth chainring and a 11-42 cassette.

very helpful video and explanation! thanks a lot! i'm going to switch from 2x to 1x and now my knowledge is much more complete. great job!

I ride a Giant TCX 1x 46t chainring and 10-42 cassette. Working great on both gravel and road, plus occasionally a bit of singletrack. I love the simplicity and the gaps don't bother me. Thank you @ridesofjapan for making this video!

I went from a 1x12 to a 2x10 set up on my gravel bike. 30-42 in the front and 11-336 on the back currently. I have not had any issues so far with it (3 months). My speed in flat is excellent, and when I get extreme climbs I have the gearing, unlike before where I had to give up on speed or climbing. So it's up to what you decide to ride on!

Great video as usual! You should do a Q&A, love watching your witty talking videoes ;)

I have combined my GRX 1x with an 11-46 XT cassette in the back. I used the Wolftooth goat Link to manage „smooth“ shifting. I like it a lot on my Gravelbike.

I'm building up a cross/gravel bike this spring/summer step by step and your videos are a biiiig help, thank you! Greetings from Berlin.

A delicate topic to address and you have succeeded in being a good politician.

I’m still riding 3x6 uniglide on my old Ritchey. Does what I need it to do, which is make me grin ear to ear! 🤗

Been on 1x for 2 years now, love the simplicity of it. Sram Force1 Easton EC90SL cranks with 48 chain ring and 11-42 in the back on a steel bike. There are a few 18% climbs in my area and some 25% but the elevation gain is never more than 150m at a time so I still have the gearing with the 42 at the back and better speed with the 48 up front. it came with 44 chain ring but i was maxing out on group rides and needed more top speed.

I tried 1x for 2 years to give it a chance. Never could ride without gear hunting, and spinning out. I tried it a year and a half too long. Where I ride with tons of hills and headwinds. You're totally right in the beginning, if you're concerned about the gaps and your cadence, you're not gonna dig 1x and compromises you can't get around without 2x. And now, GRX gearing with 48/31 and 11-30/32 or 34 ,... game over , reverse slam dunk for the win for all-road/gravel riding.

Brilliant. I run a 11-46t rotor cassette with smaller jumps on the the bigger gears and decent climbing gears paired with 44 ring in the front and sram AXS red derailleur

Your English is pretty much perfect. Reminds me of time I spent in Sweden though. Gaps bother me on rare occasions when I am forced to climb.

another great video. Your content is always great no matter if it's talking or not talking, or talking with a frog in your throat (get better soon!). I do this sort of thing in Excel but I may give the site a check, thanks. The thing that occurred to me is that someone needs to make a continually variable transmission for bikes! No more cadence jumps, just pedal faster or slower. Well, it's a dream, maybe...

I also live in Japan, ride 1x FSA Omega 42t crank and GRX clutched rear mech. I definitely won’t go back to 2x! 1x narrow-wide chainring gives that instant moment transfer to the wheels, like on fixed/track setup. My cassette is 11-36 XT, and I feel quite comfortable on japanese mountain terrain.

Great points on gearing being very personal to the rider. For a period of time, I was just using my 1x gravel bike for road and I found it to be way less enjoyable than having a dedicated road bike with gears and road geometry.

Great video!!! As someone whose just an enthusiast/amateur rider and not pro or former pro, you can get caught up in all the hype. I wasn’t sure whether to go 2x or 1x for my new bike. And then I thought about it a bit differently not long ago: I live in the flat flat flat Midwest USA and we don’t have climbs or anything. And for riding in a fun event where there are climbs, I can just swap the cassette. I got two wheel sets, one for gravel one for road. On the road I have a more compact setup since it’s so flat, and the gravel wheels run a wider range. Being that I’m an athletic rider at 100kg, and I’m not a pro bike mechanic, having less thing to go wrong and less parts to have to adjust is great. And last fall I finally switched my XC MTB to an Eagle 1x, and I realized how much I love not having the huge jump caused by the front gear change. It’s great. :) Maybe not for everyone, but I love it.

I had the same 2x setup with 50/34 chainrings and a 11-32 cassette. Switched to 1x with a 38t wolf tooth chain ring and kept the 11-32 cassette. I hardly ever use the 11t cog. On steeper downhills I just coast, saving my energy instead of fighting the wind resistance .

Coming from a normal 2x bike, I tried 1x for the simplicity and had my Bokeh initially setup with SRAM Rival 1x (11-42 cassette paired with a 40T ring). The large gaps and resulting cadence changes also ended up being the dealbreaker for me until the shop owner recommended Shimano Di2 and I haven't looked back ever since. 2x Di2 with full synchro-shift is technically the best 1x config, with the only downside being cost. I now run a full Ultegra Di2 group with a 11-34 back and 50/34 ring for normal road use, and swap over to Absolute Black 46/30 subcompact rings when I do some bikepacking.

Also a one by 11 crit bike for the flats is amazing, 52 up front with an 11-28 cassette

Wanted the same 11-40 cassette and XT mech; however, wanted a very low climbing gear, and a reasonable road gear. So, picked the 28/38 (cough) double chainset. I have both shifters as a gravel bike, so no problem there.

Flawless video! I think with a 1x system you have to just accept that your speed or cadence may not be optimized in some situations. I put a Wolf Tooth Components 34T front chain ring on my old, 26" mountain bike, removed the front derailleur and shifter, and installed an 11-34 nine-speed cassette on the rear. I am using this bike as a commuter, with a rack and rear pannier bags. The gears are low enough to climb up the hills in the Metro Denver area, and still give me a top speed of 23.14 mph at 100 cadence. I certainly can't keep this bike at 20+ mph on the flats, so more gears just doesn't matter!

Well done. I have a Haanjo Exp with a 2x, 48/32 crank and Deore M-6000 11-42 cog. I'm in WA state and can't imagine just a 1:1 ratio. Some gravel out here requires an MTB trail approach and some of the roads around I-90 are quite steep.

8:25"The only time I really go hard is when I'm climbing". 🤣🤣

I changed from x1 38 - 11-40 to the new grx 48/31 and 34-11 for better speed on the flat

Great video, well thought out, well put together, and I'm glad you scrapped your other iterations of this video for this one. Well done! Using gear calculators are really really good to figure out what size chainring you need for the setup to work. Once you understand how to use it, it can take the guess work out of it, you just go buy the chainring you need. Even today, I still see value in a 2X setup but still currently only using 1X. Surprisingly, the biggest innovations for 1X is what made 2X better: the rear derailleur clutch. Riding off road, the biggest reason to run 1X is to simplify the drivetrain, but also to make the drivetrain perform more reliably. The combination of a narrow-wide chainring (which cannot be shifted) and a clutch on the rear derailleur is the most reliable setup. However, 2X systems also benefit by the derailleur clutch by maintaining chain tension. Chain tension was/is the reason for most chain drops. The clutch does a really good job at minimizing chain drops even while using regular chainrings! Now I will say that I don't believe gravel and road benefit as much by 1X as mountain, but it also depends on the grades you typically ride. If you're rarely dealing with more than 10% grade, you're probably never going to use the small ring in your chainset. So removing the weight can be beneficial. However, since brakes are integrated w/ shifters for road/gravel, the weight savings are negligible. On mountain, you can remove everything including the shifter which actually compensates for the bigger cassette. The other use case where the gear calculators are really good is figuring out the gear ratios you want to run in single speed or fixed gear. Since you only have one gear, you need it to be the right gear for the majority of your riding. The great thing (outlined in this video) is that you can look at a bunch of different ratios at the same time!

Fantastic video. I live in very flat area and I am looking to convert a bike to SRAM AXS eTap, but something in the back of my head said go 1X, since I do not have to worry about hills. We only have bridges and wind, and there are days where I use the small ring to battle the wind when it kicks up, but since I run mechanical and a 12-25 cassette with a 50/34 , I have a lot of single tooth shifts to find the best gearing to fight the wind. I never knew about the BikeCalc, that will help me in my decision. Kudo's sir.

if only id seen this before I bought. keep putting out the great content

On the subject of spacing, this is a non-issue if you are coming from lower level 2x groupsets. An 11-46 11s cassette has virtually the same spacing, or even slightly tighter spacing, as an 11-32 8s cassette. Going to 1x11 from 2x8 or 2x9 gives effectively the same spacing, same range, a better climbing gear and a simplified/cheaper drivetrain...

For anyone that is interested: When I went 1x, I hated that the new cassette was such an anker at over 400 grams (11 speed shimano XT). I did not want to switch to Sram since I already had the expensive GRX Di2 groupset. I decided to try a Frankenstein system with a GRX Di2 groupset shifting a Sram chain on a 265 gram 10-42 cassette. I was amazed that it shifts even better than the purebred shimano system I had before. I love it and it saves even more weight than 1x does in the first place.

What a great video, loved the colours the contrast with the dark backgrounds, and when a large table comes up, the highlighting. This takes quite a bit of effort. And when analyzing a number of combined factors it does take a few efforts to get it right. Thank you for not giving up, and thanks for such a great and humorous video. I find that when i feel gears are not working after a few rides, the calc or a spreadsheet will highlight the problem and the solution. I was using a 2x 11-34 on my gravel (34/50 chainrings). For commuting the 34 front ring giving me a 1:1 crank to rear wheel rotation perfect for the steepest and luckily shortest climb. A gravel race I did had over 3000' of climbing over 72km, and i found my other 11-42 cassette was allowing me to spin longer and quicker than others. The last hill i had to walk because of fitness. When i kept this on for commuting the next week i found 2nd gear (37) to be real nice. Alas after i broke my rear mech i stepped my racing cassette down to an 11-36. I also find the % numbers to give a better referential comparison, as we are creatures of comparison. I did not realize the changes you pointed out in the smaller cogs, but what i do notice, is my frustration is in the lower range - when i change my gears not for speed, but for climbing. It seems the downhills are for resting, for me. What i did notice is a 5 tooth gap is unsmooth when you are really grinding up a hill and are forced to shift. Momentum can slow when shifting, especially if the chain takes a few extra teeth to get up to next bigger cog and then you might tip over. Do you have any links about 1x setups/conversions? I have another 10 speed 2x coming, less expensive mtb, that i will probably upgrade to an 11 speed 1x. I am curious what i need to do. If I put on a single 1x chainring will it still work on a 10s cog? Will a chainring/crank setup stating it's 11s, really only work with 11s, or can i use that on a 10s? Just looking at more combinations, and yes more picky numbers. Thanks again.

It would work for me. I would choose a 44t chainring with a 11-32 cassette. That is still 46 kph at 90rpm and the easiest gear is even a bit easier than what I have now on 2-by.

The knowledge was special. Thanks so much.

Very informative. 👍🏻 Hope you’re feeling better soon. 😷

That video was great. Congratulation from Spain

Great vid...main takeaway for me is the net gear ratios from a 1x or 2x setup including the rear cassette. I know a lot of folks don't drill down on the numbers, but once you do, and know how the current bike (and self) perform on flats and climbs (which takes some experimentation), it should be clear which direction to go. It would not make much sense to simply modify to 1x or 2x without this understanding.

Cool video as usual. With a nod to those who don't care what they ride, so long as they are riding, I am running a Rotor 1x13 on a 3T Exploro. I am using a 44T chainring and a 10/46 cassette. I have set the gearing for gravel riding primarily. I am on Rotor's carbon road rims using 25mm Contis on the road and 35mm G-Ones on the gravely days. Tubes in both cases. I have been riding on the road with groups and doing a few road races. I have done a couple of good gravel rides and a couple of gravel races. With respect to the range issue. The 44 against the 10 works fine for road and gravel. Its slightly less gearing then my 2 x 11 (52T) speed road set up. I could run a bigger CR for road work and the Rotor system is quite a simple change over but for now I'll stick with what I have. At the other end the 46T is plenty for what i am doing. One of those gravel rides had about 3500 meters of climbing and a lot of it was steepish (15%). The 44/46 combo worked well. The gear spacing issue. This is interesting. I am finding the spacing to be spot on. No big jumps between gears. The 46T does not feel like a bail out and the 39T (next one down) is a nice climbing gear. The steps through the guts of the cassette feel even. I didn't feel like I was searching for the right cadence when riding in a road bunch. So, 1x13, the way of the future?

I watch your videos mainly for the sarcasm 😆

Excellent presentation. Great job!

Great video. Next week I'll do my 1x conversion: 42t chainring and 11-36 casette, better climb ratio of my actual compact ratio 36 11-28. I bought a 105 r7000 50-34 crankset: this way I have a new (and lighter) crankset to test with a wolftooth chainring... if I don't like it I still have a lighter 2x crankset

I was a mountain biker first - back in the mid 80s. I didn't start riding road until I started racing XC seriously in the late 90s. For training. I think because I still have that mountainbiker mentality - the gaps in 1x? Yeah.. they aren't an issue. Cadence is usually not the focus on an MTB - simply getting meaningful power down on variable terrain is. So you dont fret about getting that "perfect spin" because on an MTB... alot of the time when you DO find it, you have to change it up to accomodate terrain. I have a tendency to do the same on the road bike. Instead of gearing down to Crest a small rise, I just add power - and my cadence goes down, power goes up, but speed stays the same.

Great video, very helpful for many riders. Switched to 1x a few months ago (with an 11-42 cassette) and finding the right cadence and gears at the moment. Did a race in the French Alps with lots of climbing, people looked at me and thought I was crazy doing a race with this setup, until I passed them in ascending and descending (only minor spinning out, coasting aero went fine!) Might go to different chainring (44t) or cassette (11-36 for the smaller gap and 12t). Thanks again, very informative!

I live in a hilly town. I found the high end gears to be a waste. I found that a 34T chainring /11-34T cassette worked. Interestingly, I am converting to a 32T chain ring as it affords me a smaller cassette of 11-32Twhile still giving identical ratios. I also think a friction thumb shifter keeps you far more in touch with your bike mechanics while eliminating the finicky adjustments of indexed shifting.

Nice honest comparison

My mountain bike has a 1x12 and i've found it to be amazing due to the simplicity and surprisingly large gear range. So I just pulled the trigger on a Norco Search XR S Rival gravel bike with 1x11, which has a 40t chainring and 10-42t cassette. Until now i've been using an old steel road bike for commuting with a 2x8 and 12-25t cassette, so I think the gaps will be relatively comparable. I'll find out on Monday!

very good and informative video! Thank you! I have the same cog and cassette :) 42 / 11-40 and I'm absolutely happy with them! removing the front derailleur and my 54t big plate I had 350 gr weight reduction! :)

Thank you, that was very informative, and helpful in our decision making process.

This was well done intro. If a cyclist has a narrow cadence preference, they can really enhance their rides if they get the correct gears. However, I also know roadies that only ride the big ring down hill. They might not feel the difference and then have all the advantages of the 1x. I bought the absolute black oval 30/46 chain-rings for my front and 11-34 in back with the ultegra rear derailleur that has the clutch. Brand new bike. I may post a follow up here if I learn anything interesting as I put more miles on this new bike. Can't wait to climb a steep gnarly hill with the 30/34 combo.

Thanks! Great explanation. Finally some hard facts to help decide this question.

Get well!

You should try 1x12, you can use any of the SRAM Eagle shifters (although you won't be able to use drop bars unless you go AXS) and depending on the cassette, either one of the Eagle derailleurs or SRAM mountain bike 11 speed derailleurs. You could use the 11-50 cassette to be able to run a larger chainring with the same gaps as 11-42 , or even 11-52 from Aliexpress or Rotor, the latter also offering 12 speed cassettes of 11-46, 11-39, and 11-36. Rotor's cassettes seem to favor smaller gaps in the harder gears which you'd prolly prefer. Or just go full Rotor 1x13 with the same cassette ratios plus a 10t cog if you're willing to go hydraulic shifting.

Yes and appreciate your work!

42CR with an XD river and 10-50 12 speed cassette will give you everything you need, but the problem then becomes brifters not supporting 12 speeds. But wait, AXS to the rescue ... once they start selling individual components and you can mix the Eagle AXS 10-50 capable rear derailleur with the Force or Eagle 1x shifters. Currently you have to get 2 AXS systems to mix/match, spend a fortune and try like hell to recover some costs by sell those components that you didn't use.

Seeing as I ride mostly fixed, I'd probably be overwhelmed on a bike with 22 gears. I am on the market for a geared bike and I am pretty much set on getting something 1x. Also, the area I am living in is flat as a pancake. I simply would not know what to do with a massive gear range found on 2x bikes.

I run a 44 x11-36 (11 speed). 44x11 is plenty for speed, 44x36 is about the same as 34x28 so fine for climbing as well. The bottom is 11-12-13-15, I do notice I miss the 14 on the flats. Will probably change to 12-36, still plenty of speed possible with 44x12.

Great information as always! Yeah, for my road bike I am using 11-30 & a 50/34 works great...I am now living in Spain and I thought that the crazy hills here would assassinate me with that combo, but after a year of training with those chain rings and cassette I find it to be doable. My legs have pretty good watts potential. But heck, for a gravel bike I would SURELY try a 1- X Watch for those earthquakes out there! Lately the whole land mass of the earth is rather active! :0

So...I have four bikes. Two of them are 2X and two of them are 1X. If you MADE me decide, I think I'd pick 1X, primarily for the simplicity. I can't say that I miss the closer intervals of 2X and I certainly don't miss having to shift chainrings.

I never noticed the gaps before but after a winter of 2x I really notice them now especially on road. Still good off-road though👍

I'm a total beginner so this isn't particularly useful to me...I'll gain more from losing weight than messing with my bike (in progress), but it's really interesting to see what kind of customization is available depending on riding interest. So to that end, this video was really interesting!

Well done. Thanks for putting all the work into this!

Just bought a 1x. Cervelo Aspero. Sram Apex 10x42T w 40T chainring. Thanks for the tips.

Great video and agree with your points. I’m also a 1x user on my Scott foil. Love the drive train simplicity and absence of any chain drop issue. I also used the bikecalc tool and similarly looked at the speed and cadence. I have a 42T chainring and 11-30T cassette. Would also spin out at close to 60kmph. My avg cadence is between 95-100. Climbing wise I will try not go below 85 and I’m comfortable to spin up to 115rpm hence the 1x setup suits me. No super steep climbs in singapore so I’m good. For 1x, I would say are for people who are not looking for the high speed descending but rather a person who prefers overall higher avg speed for the ride. Oh ya, I’m also no racer, just a normal rider who rides once a week on Sunday avg 80km and avg speed 31kmph. Plan to graduate to 44T end this year. Cheers

"a very strong typhoon in my back" 😂😂😂😂

Not interesting? This was VERY interesting & helpful, gratitude for sharing your thoughts & reasoning behind your decision to go 1x. I'm eyeing a Chinese clone of the Open U.P., as well as a well used U.P. first version (post mount), O'm still undecided if you or others would like to give some input....?

Even with overlapping gears on 2x, being equal in ratio does not mean equal in friction drag as smaller cogs and rings of the same ratio will be less efficient. This means that even if you have a tall enough top gear in 1x for a reasonable top speed, the drivetrain friction will be greater than on a 2x. Is it enough friction to matter? Depends on what's important to you I guess. Having ridden and raced during the last 25 years, I want the best riding and pedaling experience possible. Getting rid of the front mech and going 1x does not improve my experience, it makes it worse due to being less versatile. Comparing a total range between the gear ratios is not the same as having two sets of ratios in the real world. The weight savings is negligible and shifts more weight to his flywheel on your back wheel which I can feel. One of my bikes has a 3x7, totally old school and I completely enjoy the utility of even 3x over the progressing drivetrain technologies over the last 25 years. Does 1x allow you to have more fun or faster, or is it just about fulfilling the insecurities brought about by bicycle marketing managers? Plus if you change your environment, you'll have to change your chainring to be optimized for that environment, where with a 2x, you should be preparted for riding in a wider range of places without changing anything.

Me, I thought long and hard about getting a 1x 3T Strada, and then planned a tour down to Alpe d'Huez. My idea was to have a 50t or 48t front chainring for the trip down from Stockholm, and have a smaller chainring in the bag, that I'd switch to once I reached the alps. At some point I realized that I was basically getting a 2x where I had to bring out the mutlitool to shift the front, so I will probably get myself a 2x instead. On the other hand I believe I'll be on 1x within a few years, depending on how things turn out. Currently 12x looks like a mess, with so far four incompatible systems. Sram 12x seems to be the only system that is compatible with existing wheels, for Shimano and Campa I guess I need new freehub bodies, which may or may not be available for my wheels. And all the systems seem to have super wide MTB cassettes or tight road cassettes and nothing in between. If this gets sorted out in the upcoming years, and I also get to keep those DI2 hood buttons that enables me to control my head unit without taking my hands off the bars, then I might be going 1x. Otherwise I'll most likely stay on 2x for a pretty long time, I get quite a lot of range from a 50/34 and an 11-36.

Odd isn't it? I shouldn't be interested in this yet I am! Another brilliant vid. Thank you. I'm an old, heavy (or fat 🙄) x2 roadie with rim brakes and NOT tubeless, so WTF but this, like all (ok, most) of your stuff, was really useful. 🙏

just my two cents, 1x hype is just marketing from the industry, yes there are few new tech (xd driver, 10t smallest cog etc) but I’m using my old miyata 1x7 !! for commuting here in kyoto (that bike is 30ish year old-was top level hybrid mountain city bike back then) so if you still confuse whether to upgrade or change to 1x, just try it !! I personally still using 3x10 for my mtb and 3x9 for my touring/bikepacking/gravel steel bike and Do Not Need nor Want to change to 1x ... why? money ... hahahah tried several low end 1x bikes and I don’t feel any real advantage for my style of riding.

I am awaiting my GRX 48/31 crankset (paired up with 11-34 11 speed cassette). Reviewing the numbers in the third part of your video did make me think I made the right choice to stick to 2x as I am particular about my cadence (I do have 1x on my MTB). Another not so obvious (and less important) reason I felt it was right to stick to 2x: I am running mechanical (Ultegra/GRX mix) and I don't have a dropper post. So my left hand shifter would be useless, that thought somehow did not sit right with me.

Have 1X for one and half years , finally back to 2X. Not issues of gaps or edge ratio, but the f**king Sram Force narrow wide chainring and stupid chainline. When I use 1X 42T front 420mm chainstay on flat road in 30kph, noisey chain and 180w power to maintain it. Swich to normal Red 50T big ring, quite & smooth just 165w power demand.

Maybe this might be helpful to others. Did you know a 11Sd 11/34 cassette first 6 gears are 11, 13,15,17,19,21 and these exact gears are on a SRAM 10/44 cassette. IF you want to know what the gaps are like, try a 11/34 cassette on your 11sp setup. I currently ride Ultegra 50/34 with a 11/34 cassette and have done for quite some time. I have become use to the gaps and don'treally notice them that much, but appreciate the easier gears for climbing. When I have done group rides I can keep up at 30-40kmh, it is not the gearing but my fitness and strength that eventually wains. And if I am honest I don't use the 11T that often, mostly when I take the wheel off. :) I think a 1x set up with a 10/44 cassette would work for me with a 42 or 40 chainring plus will give me an even easier climbing gears. Thanks for the video it was helpful. I am wanting to go electronic and switching to 1x makes it more affordable.

Thank you for this info. I live where the hills have hills and I do mostly transport and touring, have a child who has decided that due to hills, seeing cars hit bicyclists, while also having a heavy Norco kids' bike, has deemed that she hates riding her bike, and this info hopefully helps me inform how I can make her love bikes again as we upgrade her bike and maybe mine.

Once you figure your ratios (i like gear inches) you can make your own cassette from multiple new or used cassettes. Be sure to use the correct cog spacers. Your english and videos are very good. Thank you.

I tried many combinations on paper for a 1x setup for my Venge but none were functional since I ride a lot of very fast downhill where I can easily reach over 70 kph and I also do a lot of climbs. So the 11-40 cassette has too big gaps and I can't figure a chainring size that would fit my top and low speed. Furthermore, a good Di2 setup will make you forgive about the front chainring shifting.

Great vid as always. I use both - a 2x for my road and 1x for gravel (duh). Definitely insightful to look at the actual gaps in numbers on the climbing end. I always thought the 2x was way more granular but apparently not by much at all! For me, the additional reason I prefer a 1x on my gravel bike is that there’s less to worry about (both on the trail and cleaning...).

Great video man

thank you! I'm on a 1x 46 t in front and 11-40 cassette, but have another plate with 42t in front, which is better on a long Brevets with big denivelations. Good Luck!

Your English is great. How many languages can you speak?

No. I'm surrounded by steep hills. I like to be able to select easy mode on the way up, and I like to go as fast as possible going down. So 34/50 and 11/30 is perfect for me.

Great video! And your English is excellent, BTW.

I’m using Shimano GRX 800 1x 11 speed. For road I use an 11-36 (sram pg 1170 this cassette has 11,12 and 13 cogs).For gravel I use an11-42 (shimano XT). I have two pairs of hunt wheels with the same freehub and disc rotors. changing the wheels is a 5min job without brake rubbing issues.. 😉

You worry too much about your English but it actually helps me being more focused on what you say... Strange I know. Important question!!! What's the cycling cap you wear? Please? :)