[Roadkill401]

Having come from an old Liquid 20 with a 3×9, I have been wishing for the day to get rid of the front derailleur and just go 1x.  If you ask me, it is a fallicy saying you get more gear ratio’s with a 2x.  Your picking up maybe two or three extra gears.  Sure you have 20 possible in a 2×10, but the vast majority of them are overlapping gears from the other cog size.  ie, if you have a 22 and 32 front, the ratio of mechanical advantage might cover from 1.2 – 3.8 for the 22 tooth cog, and from 2.2 to 4.6 on the 32 tooth cog.

This means that with the smaller 22 tooth gear cog, it’s only the first two or three gears of the rear cassette that give you a mechanical advantage that is below the range you are getting with the larger 32 tooth gear cog.  All the other gear choices are already covered.

The choice really comes down to what sort of riding that you do.  If you are someone who rides in diverse conditions such as really hilly trails where low gear range is wanted and flat street roads where higher speed would be liked, then going with a 2x or 3x system is likely preferable.

On my Trek Liquid 20, it has a 3×9 with a mechanical advantage ranging from 1.3 all the way up to 6.6.  Now I am moving over to an Anthem 1 bike with larger wheels but has a 1×11 group on it.  I have looked at how I ride on my Trek and know off the top that I will need to change the front crankset gear to at least 34 tooth and see if I can get an aftermarket 36 tooth that is reasonable.  I have analyzed my current setup and know that I will never need the ultra low that the 38 and 46 tooth rear cassette gears offer with the standard 32 tooth crankset that comes standard with the bike.  It makes no sense to keep that gear cog.  I will be loosing too much on the top speed end, and gaining nothing on the slow speed as it is just too low a gear range for me to use.

The choice of what is better for you can be calculated and enumerated if currently have a bike and just look at what gears you use and calculate the mechanical advantage from those.

[Roadkill401]

Yea.. Newbie here.  Goals for this year.

1. Figure out how to use this site.

2. Update the known trails in this area so at least they are complete and accurate.

3. Push my skill level forward enough so that technical singletrack with jumps at high speed is not limited by my fear

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