Best 1 - 11 setup

[Robert Gardner]

Hi folks --

I am retooling my drive train on my Roadini -- this will be my "fast bike" and potentially used in whatever we are calling rando rides these days (pending any actual group rides happening again). 

Looking for suggestions on a 1-11 drivetrain -- 11-46? 11-42? I'm in DC, so will be riding some hills, some flats, but nothing too crazy. Not sure if I'm going to go Herse or White Industries, so I'd love thoughts there as well. And, that little thing called a derailleur. I will be using a bar end shifter. 

I'm assuming you all have very definite thoughts, so please treat me kindly in this thread. 

A danke --

RGinDC

[Wyatt]

Can’t say I know the best, but I recently set up a 1x11 drive train with a Microshift bar end, SLX rear derailleur, and SLX 11-46 rear cassette. Loved it, especially once I got the hang of running it friction and doing smooth double or triple shifts. Plenty of range, though I’d probably run a chainring bigger than 38t next time. Was fairly cheap and light enough, too. Had to leave that frame behind in Indonesia in the middle of this whole thing, but plan to set up that same drivetrain again in the not too distant future.

Curious to hear what other 1x11 drivetrains people hang put together, too.

[Brendan Willard in SF]

I'll second the SLX/Microshift 11-46 setup.  I had that on My Velo Orange Piolet. Indexing on the Microshift sometimes got in between positions, but could be fine tuned with more/less tension on the shifter screw.  I'm running a 1x11 White Industries ENO 34t to a SRAM XO1 & XT 11-46 cassette on my Travelers Check, but that is with Bullmoose Bars and a XO1 thumb shifter- really happy with it.  Planning to do an Ultegra brake/shifter to Tanpan to SLX with 11-46 on a Black Mountain Road+ I'm building.  I'll let you know!

Brendan

[Adam in Indiana]

I'll third the Microshift/SLX drivetrain... I've used it on two different frames now. Currently have it on a Gevenalle/TRP brake lever, and used it as a bar-end on my Hillborne. I used it in friction mode then, and got pretty good at it, but the index mode is always there as a fallback.

[Patrick Moore]

I'm curious why you need a 46 or 42 t cog on a bike built to be a fast road bike, especially in DC (I lived and rode there). I would think you'd sorely miss closer ratios in the middle gears, no? The first 11 sp cassette meant for a single ring that I could find was this one for a 42 t ring: 10,12,14,16,18,21,24,28,32,36,42

That's a drop from 84" 74" to 65" to 56" which would be fine on a mountain bike for steep singletrack, but IMO, deadly on a road bike (I'm assuming a 28" diameter wheel for a true 35 mm tire, but the gaps would be very similar for skinnier tires.)

Actually, the jumps aren't as big as I had feared, but they're still pretty big for a fast road bike.

And that's a 117" high, which IMO is pretty high even for a fast road bike unless you are racing.

Even if you will be carrying heavy-ish loads* into headwinds up the hills I am familiar with in NW Washington, I can't see needing anything lower than say a gear in the 40s; let's say 40". I'm not familiar with 1X drivetrains, but to take my dirt road-road bike as an example, if you have a 42 t ring and 32 mm tires, that would mean a cog of about 30 t: 42/30 X 28" wheel = 39". That's a lot lower than I use for everyday riding in rolling terrain even with grocery loads on my road bike, and I'm 65 and hardly super fit. Now a long ride for me is 40 miles (it is indeed up from 30!), but at least for that distance, in merely rolling terrain without a heavy load, I can't see using anything below 40 gi -- I can't see using even that, frankly. My dirt road bike bottoms out at 50" in the 42 ring, and at 33" in the 28 t ring (25 t cog).

My road bike for dirt roads is set up as a 1X 10 with bailout ring (42/28 X 13-25 10 speed) and while I realize most people aren't as fussy as I about close gaps in the middle range, I can't imagine 

* Since my errand road bike is unavailable, I've been using my gofast road bike for carrying groceries; 20.32 lb exactly today in a Camper Longflap on the Joe Starck custom, 76" fixed gear, no hills but certainly a headwind.

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Patrick Moore

Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum

[Patrick Moore]

BTW, I will not criticize anyone who wants to put a 32 X 10-50 on a road bike; do whatever is the most fun. I certainly have some weird drivetrains. But I thought someone ought to point out that perhaps you don't need such a high high or low low for such a bike, and that you might want smaller than 10" jumps between the most common cruising gears.

[Wyatt]

Patrick, the benefit of running a wide range cassette on a road bike is pretty straightforward. You get all of the plusses of a 1x drivetrain (if you like that sort of thing) and can still run a big chainring up front (think 44t or even larger) without losing a decent climbing/bailout gear.

Obviously, a standard road double is what the vast majority prefer for a go-fast bike. Nothing wrong with that either.

Currently have my Rambouillet built up 1x9, 40t chainring in front and 11-36 in back. Feels pretty fast on the relatively flat dirt roads I’m riding these days (a faster rider would want for a bigger chainring) but if I get back to riding up the steep side of volcanoes one of these days, I’d definitely want to go back to a wide range cassette. I’m less inclined to imagine when or why I’d go back to setting up a front derailleur again.

[Patrick Moore]

Understood; each to his own. It's just that for non-hilly terrain I personally would like close ratios in the middle and would give up a very low climbing gear. 

FWIW, I set up my Matthews dirt road bike with a very close ratio (13-25) 1X10 with an added very occasional granny (28) for lowish gears. But again, each to his or her own.

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[William deRosset]

Dear RG,

What do you use now? Is the low low enough? Do you never spin out the high?

If so, then you have bounded your needs. Work out the gear range of that setup (ignoring whatever gears you never use), using your wheel size. Then you can transfer that range to the 1x setup by assigning the low gear based on your preferred low and checking against your needed high.

For example, let's say that you want/need a 27 gear inch low, a 110gear inch high, and aren't too fussy about the intermediate steps.

Assuming a 27 outer diameter wheel (more or less a 32-622), you would need a 1:1 gear ratio to get that low. A 42 in front would get that with an 11:42 rear cogset. Now, let's check the high gear: 42/11(27")= 103 gear inches so a little shy of your required 110in high gear. (I would be fine with this; ymmv). You'd have to go to a larger chainring and larger big rear cog to get there. A 44t front cog would work, but then you'll need to source an 11-44 rear cogset. More likely to find an 11:46.

All this rear coggery doesn't come for free. You have a 4:1 range in this example, and it all has to be taken up in 11 or 12 integer-tooth jumps. You lose granularity in the middle range vs a double or triple.

This may or may not bug you. I don't notice it at all when off-road, but it drives me insane on the road.

I ride single tooth changes from about 65" to 75" if I can. I was noticing the lack of an 18t cog on my road bike today, for example, as I hunted between the 53x19(spinny) and the 53x17 (a little heavy) all the way home, pushing a headwind on a gently rolling road.

Best Regards,

Will
William M deRosset
Fort Collins CO USA

[William deRosset]

Dear RG,

Also, I assume you are a member of the DC randonneurs group. They're super helpful and can really dial in your needs well, as they're on the scene, doing what you do. My time in VA was in SW VA, and I remember short, steep walls and legbreakers a'plenty..

[William deRosset]

Dear Robert,

Re: brand choices for 1x gears with a bar-end shifter: SRAM Force 1 and matching indexed bar end.

It has a wide-range clutch rear derailleur designed specifically for a no front derailleur condition. I use the integrated lever version, and it works well. The derailleur looks more mad max than Jetsons, but the future isn't what we expected either. I believe Shimano also offers 1x specific derailleurs, but they weren't compatible with bar emds. This may have changed with the GRX group release....

I would also suggest using a narrow-wide chainring or chainguards with a 1x11 setup. That consideration may affect your crank choice.

[Brendan Willard]

Any Shimano 11 speed medium cage with a microshift bar end BS-m11-R will work well.

Speaking in Thumbs 👍

> On May 16, 2020, at 7:48 PM, William deRosset <wmder...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Dear Robert,

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[Brendan Willard]

This is a very thorough look at wide range 1x11, covers most combinations across a broad price range, though it is indeed focused on wide range... https://bikepacking.com/gear/wide-range-1x11/

Pathlesspedaled has a lot of useful info too. 

Best,

Brendan

Speaking in Thumbs 👍

On May 16, 2020, at 8:04 PM, Brendan Willard <bpw...@gmail.com> wrote:

Any Shimano 11 speed medium cage with a microshift bar end BS-m11-R will work well.

[Joe T]

I jjust recently put Bocomoose bars and an 11 speed Microshift bar end. I like friction shifting but the the switch on the shifter works great to change it to indexed.

Here is my 1x11 set-up on my Clem: