Yeah, you’ll see plenty of pros running a 50 ring with 10-52 as well. Even Keegan has run that setup in the past. They are mostly on 10-46 with the new 13 speed, but prior to that being released 10-52 cassettes were often the gearing of choice for pros in gravel races.
And I ride a 10-52 for almost all my road riding. Again, more range than what I get with 2x. And the gear jumps don’t bother me. It wouldn’t be my choice for road racing, but for training and fast group rides, it’s totally fine.
I won’t get into the argument of gearing. Just adding my preference for 2x on road. The ranges between 1x and 2x are very close. Close enough that I’d never know the difference. For me, it’s those extra 2 or 3 gears you get with 2x to make the gear jumps smaller that is the defining feature. Yea, I have 10-51t on my MTB that has a huge range. I hate it. And that’s not even pedaling downhills. The jumps are massive. I just don’t see any benefit to 1x. It’s less efficient, less comfortable. Yea it’s simpler. But is shifting a FD really that complex? The only time I would ever consider 1x for road is if I lived in a pan flat area where I’m never shifting my FD anyways. Somewhere where I could run like a 54t up front and 11-30t in the back, which is my current crit setup.
Don’t forget that jumps are going to be much bigger on the typical MTB chainring (~32-36) compared to what someone might choose for road (~46-50). As you grow your chainring, the jumps between cogs (as a percentage) get progressively smaller. Not saying they aren’t still noticeably larger than 2x setups, but it’s a very noticeable difference running 1x with a 34 vs. a 46 ring. I typically leave a 44 on my gravel bike when I’m training on the road and doing B/C gravel races, not because I need that high of gearing for most gravel races, but it’s low enough for gravel and still has plenty of top end for fast group rides. For rule of 3 and unbound, I’ll probably go with a 42. The gear jumps get a little more noticeable, but both of those races are beat downs and I ran a 44 last year for both and was looking for lower gears on some of the steep stuff.
For sure. I still hate it on road. Ran it on my gravel bike for 3-4 months because that’s what it came with. But I always hated it and swapped when I could afford to build up a 2x group. My gravel bike now is 50/34t and 11-36t but I might swap out to 52/36t. 1:1 is all I’ve ever needed. The only time I haven’t hated it for road is when I ran 54t and 11-30t. I could deal with those jumps because that’s what I’m used to with 2x. But it was for pan flat rides. Any hills and it became terrible. So I either get a bigger cassette and big jumps, or get a smaller chainring and spin out and/or lose speed. In the end, I just didn’t see any benefit to 1x. I have no doubt I can get the gearing I want with 1x or 2x. I just don’t see why I would choose 1x over 2x with the downsides it comes with. I also get that gear jumps aren’t annoying to everybody. So I see why a lot of people run it. It’s just not for me.
Yes, shifting chainrings is that hard for my smooth brian. (Joke)
That’s surprising. In my experience, off-road you have so many stochastic undulations that I find larger gaps between gears are actually helpful/not annoying and you need to be more forgiving when it comes to cadence.
On the roads climbs tend to be steadier and you can settle into a cadence and power output.
Haha. We actually had a joke saying or motto in our MTB group:
Smooth brains, rough terrains!
55 miles yesterday and didn’t shift once, clearly all derailleurs are bad.
As a single speed state champion I agree. We should all move to full ridged bikes made from steel with 1 gear. Lol