anyone running 1x11 on their road bike?

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DJT21
Posts: 381
Joined: Sun Mar 27, 2011 7:35 pm

by DJT21

The short stays on a road bike mean that at the extreme ends of the cassette, you end up with an awful chainline, which makes for an inefficient drivetrain.

You lose a number of gears.

It looks silly.

What're you meant to do when you get a good tailwind?! :-D

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Marin
Posts: 4035
Joined: Wed Jan 22, 2014 11:48 am
Location: Vienna Austria

by Marin

Lieblingsleguan wrote:
Marin wrote:42/11 takes me to 60+ kph for long enough to not get dropped during a sprint - cadence is poor man's gearing and I used to race BMX :)

42/10 with the large cassette is faster than 50/12.

No questions about 42/10, that one can be seriously fast :wink:
Ok, your cadence work is a lot better than mine then.


It's just 120 rpm, that's not that bad for a few seconds.

964Cup
Posts: 195
Joined: Tue Dec 18, 2012 1:31 am

by 964Cup

Yes. 46T SRAM CX1 front, 11-32 SRAM PG1170 rear, Ultegra 6800gs di2. Felt F3x on 30c tubeless, used as a winter road bike, gravel and general mucking about machine. 46x32 is about the same as 39x27, which is a perfectly acceptable climbing ratio, and 46x11 is about the same as 50x12, which spins out at something like 75kph (or in other words, doesn't spin out). The 30c Mavic tyres obviously raise the gearing a little, and add some weight; previously I had the same drivetrain on a Condor steel frame which I used as a commuter, running it on 25c. I'll probably drop to a 40t front ring for cross and/or fit a bigger cassette.

adamP
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Apr 13, 2017 8:35 pm

by adamP

Thanks for all the replies, its good to hear that several people have successfully gone this route. Interesting that some of you have gone for a larger chainring with a wider range cassette. I'm leaning towards keeping the chainring down to a 40 or 42t and keeping a closer ratio cassette. I'm not too fussed about top-end gears as I'm quite happy to freewheel down big hills and I should still be able to comfortably do 40kph on the flat.

Now to find the parts (including hydros...) and start building :thumbup:

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Lewn777
Posts: 1266
Joined: Thu Mar 09, 2017 5:35 am

by Lewn777

I was thinking about running a 34T or 36T with an 11-36 on my 10sp Tiagra on my steel bikepacking bike, but I was wondering about the chainline and whether a MTV ranks with narrow wide would be the best thing to run. :?:

DeeHubbs
Posts: 107
Joined: Tue Mar 31, 2015 11:05 pm

by DeeHubbs

I'm looking forward to the CS-HG800-11s. 11-34 and will fit on a 10 speed road hub. Designed to match the R8000 (new Ultegra) derailleur.

mattr
Posts: 4671
Joined: Fri May 25, 2007 6:43 pm
Location: The Grim North.

by mattr

adamP wrote:I'm leaning towards keeping the chainring down to a 40 or 42t and keeping a closer ratio cassette.
I've done entire winters in the small ring before now. Doesn't do the front mech much good :shock: . In hindsight, i'd probably have been better off getting rid of the front mech/big ring and playing around with cassette sizes. 39 with something like 12/25 or 11/23 was what i had, and living on the edge of the peak district at the time, so a good number of 40-50mph descents (coast and tuck). And plenty of climbing. It was 9 speed, so with 10 (or 11) i could easily go up 3-5 teeth on the ring with maybe an 11/28 and kept similar sized gaps and got a better spread of gears.

Not fit enough for that these days, less power and poorer cadence (comfortable range and maximum leg speed) so i'll stick with a double.

johnnycactus
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Jul 08, 2019 4:35 pm

by johnnycactus

I've been running the 1x11 SRAM x-sync 50T with 11-28 cassette. I love the setup but am changing to a 44T chainring to address a few issues. See the calculations in MPH and 90 cadence...
Gear chart using MPH @ 90 RPM With SRAM 11-12-13-14-15-16-17-19-22-25-28 11-speed Cassette
ring 50 44
11 32.0 28.1
12 29.3 25.8
13 27.1 23.8
14 25.1 22.1
15 23.5 20.6
16 22.0 19.4
17 20.7 18.2
19 18.5 16.3
22 16.0 14.1
25 14.1 12.4
28 12.6 11.1

The goal is to spend more riding time on the 14-15-16-17 cogs as they are smaller steps and in the center of the cassette.
There is no issue for me with chain deflection but it is good to minimalize deflection if possible. With 44T there is still enough high gear to spin 100 for 30mph and saving the higher spaced low gears for moderate climbing. I will also effectively gain the missing 18t as the 44-16 is the 19mph step missing where the 50-18 would be.
I just wanted to illustrate that we should be using calculators to optimize any setup for our gear, conditions and riding style. By the way I ride in a very flat area but want the bike to be able to handle some hills if necessary.
Last edited by johnnycactus on Tue Jul 09, 2019 4:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.

gbrnole
Posts: 56
Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2018 9:40 pm

by gbrnole

adamP wrote:
Thu Apr 13, 2017 8:53 pm
I recently picked up a caad12 disc frameset that I plan to build up as a winter bike (for the UK). My intention is to run a 1x11 set-up for simplicity and I'm interested if anyone has done this? I basically found this past winter that I rarely used my 53-tooth chainring so rode 95+% of the time on 39 x 12-25 (10-speed). So I'm thinking of going 42 x 12-28 (11-speed). I've got a sram red 22 crankset I plan to use, will I have issues with chainline if I mount a single ring on this?

Interested to hear experiences of anyone who's done this - component choices, gear ratios etc? Has anyone used any of the sram apex1 stuff (seems to be the cheapest route into 1x11)? Anyone running a normal rear mech with a narrow/wide chainring?
I live in pan flat Southwest Florida so have been running 1x11 for quite some time. I run 50 x 11-26 which is fine for any bridge we have! lol

Setup is SRAM X-Sync 50t on a Quarq red and eTAP red derailleur. Love it.

I wouldn't use 1x if I lived in a proper mountainous area. I would still use 1x if I lived in rolling hills but I would probably drop the front chainring to likely 46t and have a couple of different cassette choices in that instance. eTAP WiFli or Di2 mid cage are a big help.

AnkitS
Posts: 1456
Joined: Wed Jan 09, 2019 5:03 am
Location: Santa Cruz, CA

by AnkitS

As a junior, the max gear I am allowed to run is 52-14 so the 1x option makes a lot of sense to me. A 40t chainring with a regular 11-3X cassette would mean that I don't lose anything on the top end.

bm0p700f
in the industry
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Location: Glermsford, Suffolk U.K
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by bm0p700f

In tommows and thursday race I'll be riding my 1x11 race bike. 52T garbaruk melon chainring and 12-27T. O.K it not hilly but this is suffolk you know.

My commutor bike uses 42T rotor Q ring with a 12-34T cassette and soon there will be a 11-40T with the new GRX RD. I dont ride this bike fast it for commuting and audaxes.

I have a tried a 42T ring with a 9-36T leonardi cassette and oh my that a piece of work. I need to convert a bike to this setup full time.

yes disregard what stormur has said.

With 42-11T youll be spinning at 100 rpm at 30 mph. More normal group riding thats enough but for racing it probably isnt. 42T-9T though is more than enough.

alcatraz
Posts: 4064
Joined: Mon Aug 29, 2016 11:19 am

by alcatraz

Use short crank arms to help you keep a high cadence = speed :).

I like the idea of 1x. It's aero/light. What annoys me is that I need to plan where I'm going. With 2x a bike can climb walls or race flats with the same gears.

DanielNorway
Posts: 219
Joined: Sun Jul 15, 2018 2:01 pm

by DanielNorway

Im planning to buy som ST-R7020 levers to use in a 1x11 setup with RD-RX812-GS.

Will I get any trouble not using a gear cable in my left/front lever?

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