Nerding out: gravel gears for Florida / one bike or two

Do you plan on riding in any places other than Florida - say on a vacation trip to somewhere hilly? If you plan on riding any hills, I’d say you’ll need an easier gear than any of the white options. And the only one of these that would work is the SRAM Eagle.

If you plan to just ride on flat trails in Florida where you’ll neither use the top end or bottom end, then pretty much any of those options could work.

But I’d probably pick one of the 2x options to get closer gear spacing. Probably the last white column - 10-33 cassette so closer spacing than the 10-36, while also having a 30-33 easy gear just in case you need it.

I have the 2021 diverge comp carbon with 48-31 rings, 11-34 cassette. I live in Colorado and ride a lot of hills. The 31-34 is just about easy enough. The diverge is a great bike. The future shock is awesome, and it can fit big 50mm tires - really smooths out trail roughness.

One other thing - I don’t think a 1x is necessary on a gravel bike, as you just don’t shift enough to make it necessary. On MTB or cyclocross, I wouldn’t ride anything other than 1x.

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