im super interested in your setup. Hows the jumps on the road?
Not bad. Admittedly i dont have a whole lot of miles on the road with this setup. The majority of āpavement roadā flatish rides i have on my 10-33 flattop setup.
Think about what sort of stuff you want to ride with your low gearing. I ride a cross bike on local gravel forestry roads and mountain bike trails, and I wish I had something a bit lower than the 36/34 I currently have. Some of those roads get steep. I probably donāt need the 32/42 I have on my mountain bike, but a bit lower would be nice. On the high side 46/11 has been plenty, but I donāt ride in groups with that bike and keep the gravel tyres on it. If youāre planning on putting slicks on and using it as a āproperā road bike you might want more.
You can also mix Rotor 12 speed cassettes with Eagle i read on another website who addressed this topic and have tried this in person. Will try and find the website link and reply.
Essentially the Rotor worked flawlessly with the 11-39 and eagle combo. Rotor do 11-36,11-39 and 11-46. The gearing is quite small jumps at the high end and the 11-39 was what i was thinking for my own build with the same requirements you have above.
The only reservations i have is that iāve not tried 1x before and its an expensive experiment with the Eagle derailleur bought separately. Both parts are very expensive and is that 1 extra gear worth that much money vs GRX di2 1x11. I havent costed it but in the UK, it must be more than 2x the price based on prices ive been quoted for those part.
How does that e13 cassette hold up. Really thinking I might go with this setup but I never heard of them before. Is it hard to program the axs to shift with a different cassette oppose to the standard 10-50 gearing?
The AXS is super easy to setup. I did not even have to change my limits by chance. The E13 cassette has changes since its original design which did not have a locking set screw. I do not have a-lot of hard miles on it yet so i am a bit biased but from what Iāve heard from others its great. I notice a bit of a clunk jumping to the 46 due to the chainline angle but i rarely use the bailout so i am not worried. In the end i wanted 10-42 rear and the e13 gave me 10-39 with a few more options with no big weight penalties as compared to the 10-50 dinner plate. The bottom gears are spaced a little better for my style of riding.
Well timed, Iām also in the process of ordering a Hakka with a GRX group. Since Iāll be logging in plenty of road miles to get to the good stuff, I definitely feel the need for a 2X. Iām still struggling with that but I donāt want to get spun out all the time.
1 Like
I know the hakka comes with a 40 standard and im with you I think on the road that is just going to spin out alot.
1 Like
My bike runs 34/50 - 11/34 I mostly ride road but have a 2nd wheelset for Gravel.
Never felt the need for easier gears.
1 Like
Anybody have experience with the rotor 12 speed 11/46 cassette? Know I would be lossing some top end but I dont race on the road so I think that would be fine. And pairing with a 42 crank seems to give a good bailout gravel gear. Jumps seem alot more reasonable on that setup than a 10/50
Or I put a 48t on it and get the widest range Shimano cassette and take a stupid weight penalty. That XT cassette is a pig. Iām not a weight weeny either. I suppose I could chase a SRAM casette - I used to mix those on the MTB with 11spd groups.
That e-thirteen cassette looks like an option as well.
All that to say, the FD option looks the safest best. Butā¦ those 1X builds are so clean.
Im have toyed around with a 46 and ding the wing range option. Just think the jumps may be hard to get used to on the road.
Im looking into the e-thirteen cassette too. Really intrigued by that option as well.
1 Like
If you can find that article could you send it over? After looking more into it the rotor 11-46 paired with a 42 seems like it may be the way to go for me. Maybe one day I could get strong enough for a 11-39 or maybe jump to a 44 but for some gravel climbs I want something below a 1:1 right now. But those jumps between gears dont seem bad at all. Decent enough top speed for the road I think too.
- Rotorās 12-speed 11-46T cassette. This is a great hack of the system with a 418% range, so basically the same as that magical 420%. And with an extra cog so the steps are smaller. It shifts flawlessly with a SRAM Eagle AXS rear derailleur and chain.
- Rotorās 12-speed 11-39T cassette. Yes, this one also works with the Eagle AXS rear derailleur and Eagle chain! The range is small, but bigger than the 10-33T (355% vs 330%). Itās great for riders (I happens to be one) who donāt care about their top gear because they are a relaxed descender. You can use this cassette together with a small chainring (maybe 36T, depending on your strength and terrain) and enjoy very nice, small steps between the gears.
https://blog.3t.bike/2019/09/12028/gravel-tech-hacking-sram-axs-drivetrains/
1 Like
Just reading through the this thread and itās so helpful and yet Iām so confused ā¦ question:
Would it be possible to do a GRX 1x setup with a 44t crank and an 11-42 cassette?
I think someone ran a 46 front with 11/42 and won dk last year.
There is a grx rear that can do 42, and shimano xt can do 42
1 Like
Today I had my first ride on my GRX 800 series (Ultegra equivalent) 2x11 bike. It shifts sooo much better than my other two SRAM Force bikes (11 speed). I canāt go back to SRAM at least for drop bar bikes.
It was too muddy to take my nice new clean bike on the dirt roads, but on the pavement I was enjoying my 47/32 11-34 gearing. Since the front shifting was so smooth and fast, I would shift the front to the small ring at stops so I could accelerate real easy and quickly jump back up to the big ring.
If you ever ride in groups above 28mph the 46 just seems so tiny.
I have a 52-39 on my gravel bike with 11t in rear and def have used it! (gravel worlds, -3% decline, people get dropped there with 1x!)
This is obvi aggressive but Iāve never said āI wish i had an easier gearā but my teammate who got popped for not having enough gear was reallllly pissed.
Good luck sorting it.
Glad the forum is helping you some too. It has been really helpful to me. I know grx only makes a 40 and 42 crank at the moment. I have no idea if you can run some other brand 44 with grx but it wouldnt surprise me.
I have a 48 or 46 on my gravel bike with an 11 and I can keep up on fast group rides. How much time are you really losing on those limited down hills