That’s my experience as well. SRAM’s app confirms this: even at speeds of 50 km/h, I’m typically in 42:11, my top gear is just an overdrive for when my bike points downhill.
I run a mechanical XPLR with a 10-36 for road and 10-44 for gravel with a 40t front. It works pretty well and I enjoy the simplicity. However, after watching VC’s video, I wonder if I should give a mullet a try. It will have larger jumps but a gear harder than 40/10 would be nice while being able to keep a low gear around 40/44 for steep gravel.
Rotor has a 12spd 11-39: https://r2-bike.com/ROTOR-Kassette-12-fach-11-39-Zaehne
I‘m considering this casette for my Road+ and a second wheelset to pair with a 44t upfront. It’s also quite a bit lighter than the Sram XG1271 I have on the gravel wheelset. Ideally, I‘d like the campag 10-44 spacing on a future sram red xplr casette that retains the gear range. I‘d be fine with a bailout gear like on eagle. Don‘t mind the jumps in the easy gears as much as in the fast ones. Now if sram would come out with a 13spd… we‘ll see
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I use Ekar (1x13spd) for road & gravel. I have no issues or complaints. Yeah, I spin out going downhill or hauling in the middle of a group, but it’s not often enough. When I do win the lottery, I’ll just throw a slightly bigger chainring on. I really LOVE 1x!!
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Yeah, that cassette looks nice. Unfortunately, it does not extend the range (39/11 = 354 % < 360 % = 36/10). Ideally, I would really love to have Rotor’s 13-speed 10–39 cassette. But that’s something I will need to wait for a little longer. (I briefly considered getting Rotor’s groupset, but someone from the bike industry I trust advised me against it. He is a big 1x fanatic and tried getting it running, but had problems with it. Pity.)
A mechanical XPLR setup?!? Do you run Force 1x with a 12-speed conversion kit?
Yup! I run a Force 1x long cage and the ratio conversion kit
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How does it work for you? Is the shifting as smooth as before? Was the conversion difficult?
You’re right it does not. 12spd 1x for road has still it’s limitations. Either gearrange or gearjump -wise. On the road I personally would be fine with 42-39 and 42-11 (most of the time).
Have you considered Classified Powershift? If you absolutely have to run 1x this seems to be the option without compromising gearranges but compromises in other aspects.
I’ll ride 2x on the rowd for the foreseeable future. I see the appeal on running 1x but don’t want to compromise on gearjumps. That’s personal preference and YMMV
It was quite easy. Just swapped out the rachet in the shifter and the jockey wheels. The shifting feels like stock, wasn’t harder to fine tune than 11sp. I think its a wonderful and low cost way to make an old 11 speed Sram system compatible with other 12sp bikes if you have them. I’ve been pretty happy with it
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