I’m surprised SRAM didn’t redesign their battery shape for more clearance as a simple solution folks can opt into.
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On my gravel training bike I went with a 46t upfront for flatland riding, and can swap cranks for 40t for hillier terrain. Eagle cassette on back, it’s a 10-52. No cadence drama, no issues other than knowing there are some lost watts at the limits of cassette. But I get that on 2x setup, so it’s basically a wash.
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Yes…maybe…maybe not. For me, my 38x11-42 setup is limited at the high end to about 30mph before I’m spun out , and a little less than that if it’s a speed I need to maintain for an extended time. To be able to go faster, I would need to increase the size of my chainring, but that then reduces my low end capacity, which is also important to me. To counter this, I could go with a wider-range cassette (and a different derailleur to handle it). Or, I could run a 2x system to get both the low and and the higher high end, if that mattered to me.
In reality, however, it’s rare for me to encounter a situation on my gravel bike where my high end is actually limiting me. If I’m going 30mph, it’s probably downhill and I can coast just as fast. I have done events/races where I’ve wished I had more at both ends, but since I’m not at the competitive end of the spectrum, I’m not motivated to overhaul my 1x setup that works great for 99% or the riding I do.
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If I go with a 46t, I’ll still have a lower climbing gear than I’ve ever had on a road bike before. And it might help keep me in the 15-18 cog area.
Hmmm… good thing chainrings aren’t terribly expensive anyway.
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Gearing chart for 3 of my 4 setups:
I can’t read that LOL, so here is a simplified version showing the limits of speed at 90rpm cadence:
| 90rpm cadence | speed at smallest gear | speed at tallest gear |
|---|---|---|
| Tarmac 48x35 with 10-36 cassette | 7.1mph | 35.0mph |
| Tarmac 46x33 with 10-36 cassette | 6.7mph | 33.5mph |
| Checkpoint 46T with 10-52 cassette | 6.6mph | 34.4mph |
| Checkpoint 40T with 10-52 cassette | 5.8mph | 29.9mph |
- Tarmac with 32c tires Conti GP5K All Season TR
- Checkpoint with 42c tires S-Works Pathfinders
Here is 8 minutes with a little help from a nice south wind:
Checkpoint 46T on flat road with 42c Pathfinders that measure out to 47mm. Even at 32+mph I didn’t run out of gearing.
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In my opinion, top end gearing is one of the most overplayed “issues” with 1x. Like you say, there are situations where people may want more gearing, but very few situations where lack of top end is going to get you dropped even in competitive racing situations. I raced gravel for a few years on my XC MTB and the biggest ring it could fit was a 38. Maybe gearing would have been a problem if I had the power to hang with the pros, but rolling a 38/10 was enough to keep me in the age group podium mix and I’ve never been dropped in a race due to gearing. On my current gravel bike, I’ll typically run a 44 with a 10/50 eagle cassette. I use that bike on fast group rides and again, I’m not getting dropped due to gearing. I also have 40 and 42 chainrings that I might pull out for hillier gravel courses.
My other take on 1x gearing - I don’t really “get” the SRAM xplr offering over eagle. With eagle, you get the bigger bailout gear with the trade off of a couple bigger jumps on that end of the cassette. But for the most part they are the same except the bailout gearing. Maybe the flattop xplr chains are more efficient. Or maybe people care about the extra weight of eagle, but I’m personally not counting grams on a gravel bike.
As far as the core 1x vs. 2x, the gear jump differences are real if that bothers you. It used to bother me coming from a road background, but after years of racing marathon MTB and gravel I just don’t notice it anymore and I think being able to make power across a wider cadence has made me a better cyclist.
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I’ve used my XC bike for gravel with a 32t chainring which put me in the 10-12-14 range on even the most mellow descent. The 10-12 gap is particularly brutal, even for a wide range cassette. I recently bought a 40t chainring not for higher top speed but so I could move my chain up the cassette at normal speeds.
But yeah, XC racing has definitely expanded my comfortable cadence range.
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You need to find a faster group. 
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I did a gravel event on a flat bar MTB with a 36x11 high gear. On the rolling hills, I’d barely even try to pedal the downhills, just hit my dropper and tucked into a little ball and enjoyed the recovery. Every single person that tried to pedal past me on the downhill, huffing and puffing to fight the cubic rule of drag, I caught on the first half of the next uphill and never saw them again.
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I was reading about bike aerodynamics recently And this was the recommendation for regular people….get super aero on downhills and don’t pedal to conserve energy.
That is perfect advice for my 1x bike since I can’t pedal downhill 
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It does make sense, for the energy input you get the smallest of gains to apply over the shortest time interval.
Because some people can’t get 2x setups?
Just because it’s enough for me. I don’t care about few watts when going over 55km/h on downhill. With 13 speed gaps almost the same as on 2х.
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Just a reminder that having a 1x drive train does not necessarily mean a tiny chain ring and a huge cassette. Some pro riders used 1x drive train in the Paris-Roubaix and I believe they did not run out of gears during the race.
The 1x in gravel/road riding is not the issue. The issue is that some riders want to use one bike and drive train for fast road rides, gravel rides and even for easy XC single track rides. The result is that the bike is not really good for any of the purposes.
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I think the real reminder is that pro riders’ needs are not relevant for most amateurs. Mads Petersen used a 56t single front ring at PR, but according to the Escape article pros at the sharp end averaged 350+ watts (average, not NP) for the ~6 hour race. The take that “Jonas used a 1x for a hilly road stage” doesn’t mean you can/should; the speeds at which the pro peloton moves and the power the pros have just isn’t applicable to most of us even for just road riding, unless we live somewhere very flat.
Those guys also have a mechanic to set up their 1x for optimal gearing for each stage/course, which I sadly don’t. Pros’ training bikes are all 2x.
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No clear answer for 1x or 2x on gravel as it depends on terrain. Riding a lot of gravel here in Boulder (the front range), the terrain has a ton of variety, ranging from MTB trails, big climbs and descents, technical single track, champagne gravel, etc.; we’re spoiled.
I typically run a 1x with a 10-50t in the back. When I’m not racing, I’ll run a 40t in the front. When I’m racing, I swap a 46t in the front so I can engage the 10t on anything that points downward in a race environment.
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Larger gaps can get annoying in group rides and spinning out on certain downhills. It’s honestly a minor gripe though tbh, because it makes up less than 10% of my riding.
If you ride solo, it’s fine. I rode advent x on the road without issue for over a year and enjoyed it.
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Hi Folks, I’m building a 1x11 road bike. I’ve been going down a rabbit hole with gearing but in short it looks like a 9-thirty something cassette would be ideal. The 3T and E*Thirteen options are pretty expensive. Has anyone seen any alternatives? My best find is a 9-42 (that fits my XDr Driver) but if I can make that biggest sprocket a tad smaller it will keep the jumps between gears a bit smoother. If I opt for a 10-42 cassette which is an easy option as they are readily available I’ll need a bigger chain ring and again potentially have bigger jumps between gears.
Advice welcome!
when your tired and a hill comes up, its easier to just keep shifting vs shifting both. Esp if your already under power
Are you aiming for a solid all-around road setup?
I’ve raced with a 46x 11-36 and now use a 38x 11-42 on my winter trainer/commuter/tourer. It works well but I wouldn’t take either to the Alps.
Personally, I’d save for 12-speed over spending big on 9-x cassettes. A 10-42 seems the most practical choice, depending on where and how you are riding.
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