What happened to the Scott.

I sold it two years ago when I thought I was done time trialing. I am building up a Blue TRIAD SL when getting cancer renewed my desire to race.

Would love to see the new build when completed. Hope are you are racing to a full recovery.

46t and 11-28 running right now. I live in Utah but the races I have on tap are pretty flat. I also have a 44t and a 11-32 available if I find I need it. We shall see as I am able to get outside more.

I suppose my setup wasn't too different from the several pages on here already. Minimum gear inches is usually what I'm looking for. High 40's to 50 gear inches for tri unless there's some obvious sections. Steelhead I was pedaling in the ~48 gear inch range a couple times, but I would certainly use that spread before. A week earlier at a local sprint I was struggling at 42 gear inches multiple times. High 20's for long gravel with steep loose climbs. Mid 30's for CX racing. When I build my tri bike back up for the year, I'm still undecided if I'll go 2x or 1x. That front derailleur mount looks stupid hanging out in the wind and I found myself grinding in the 32 way too often for training rides.

Two things that may be different from other responses:

1) When going with an 11-28 cassette, I preferred SRAM gearing over Shimano. The 11-15 corncob of the SRAM instead of the 11-14,16 of the Shimano jived better with my cadence/pace. I liked the 15 tooth more than the 16 and it also spreads out the final 3 climbing gears a bit more. I would encourage others to see if they like one better than the other as the 15/16/17 is where they will spend the majority of their race. The 12-28 that's solid from 12-17 could be really cool too because of the rare times I'm going 50 x 11, it's usually at low power or tucking. God strike me dead if I ever use a smaller front ring than a 50 with skinny tires.

2) So much talk about clutches, narrow wide rings, chains and chain length, but I haven't seen mentions of optimizing Shimano derailleurs for 1x. I didn't do anything special to mine for tri, but it was necessary for CX season to go from the 'light' tension setting on the Shimano rear derailleur to the slightly more tension setting. It is a noticeable difference and a <5 minute job with the chain off. Park Tools explains it well on their site at #3 on http://www.parktool.com/...ul#article-section-3. The only time I dropped a chain in CX the last two years with the narrow wide ring and higher tension RD was when the mud was thick enough to rip off my RD about 90 seconds later.

People need to include where they live / ride. If I lived in the flatlands I could have a 52 with a 12-23 in back too, but that would be stupid in a mountainous area. I live in an area where I can ride to 6 or 7 1000 plus foot climbs from my driveway.

I can certainly push a hard gear in races, but to limit myself to a 50 with a 32 in back would mean that I could not do mellow climbing days. It would limit my choices for training routes. I dont see ever having a 1x.

48 w/ a 11-28.

Was thinking of going to a 50 and 11-32, but not sure if that would make any sense.

Live in Austin, can get hilly, doing mostly flat races this year, wouldn't say Chatty is hilly, but it has more than Galvy/Arizona.

Super tight cassette spacing is nice on flat roads with variable headwind conditions - you can make minute adjustments to sync peddle cadence/power vs wind...

But for me in hilly Bloomington, IN (my setup is 44 x 11-36) a wide ratio cassette offers the advantage of not having to shift as often. The hills are constant and punchy/steep so I'm shifting very often in response to variable topography. It's nice to have a single shift that gets me into the correct gear rather than having to make 2 or 3 shifts with a tight ratio cassette to get into the correct climbing ratio.

44T chainring x 36T cassette equals the climbing ratio of a compact 34 x 28 setup so I have all the climbing gear needed for those 10 to 20% pitch segments. I do give up the ability to add power much above 33 mph using a 44T chainring, but I'm usually coasting downhill @ 45mph without adding power anyway and I don't have the power to ride above 33mph in flat conditions. (a SRAM eTap 12 speed 1x setup with a 46T chainring x 10-36 cassette is my dream setup)

Finally - I hated the big 2x system drop from a 50T chainring to the 34T chainring. The drop was always more then needed and required a rear derailleur shift to a harder/faster gear...

Hill slopes often aren't linear so you don't notice the inability to dial into the "perfect" cadence like you do on a long boring flat segment with wind...

Bottom Line - a wide ratio cassette is simply more convenient and better suited to hilly terrain - fewer shifts and quicker to get into the correct climbing gear.

This brings up where a 1x setup really shines - rolling hills. With a 50/34 you have to decide to drop down and make a couple shifts in back or muscle over it in the big ring.

With a 1x system geared for appropriate climbing (like your 44/36 gear), the only thing you really miss out on is the ability to put down power on long, gradual descents.

For me, anything I need that size gear to climb is going to mean coasting and technical turns on the way down, so I'm good with 44/11.

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/kj

http://kjmcawesome.tumblr.com/

Here is some math I created to show how 12 speed cassettes will be a huge 1x enabler- tight gearing combined with climbing ratios!
Need a little more speed switch to a 46T chainring:

Not a 1x user on tri bike because of hills in my area.

However, I wanted to comment on your article. I got the sense the article was portraying 1x a recent phenomena. The first sentence talks about what sram has done in last six years. One person claims to be early adopter in cross by starting four years ago. What you write about sram is true, but while major manufacturers have only recently jumped on the bandwagon, 1x has been around much longer.

I looked through my pictures and found one of my 1x build in my first cross season back in fall of 2007. Also found a thread on roadbikereview from 2005 that I had referenced when building my bike. One poster there mentions riding his current 1x setup for several seasons.

I could not race cross this past season. Next fall hopefully I will. Also if I can pick up a used clutch derailleur for decent price, I will upgrade there.

I concede that in 2007 only about 5% of the racers in my area rode 1x. Largely this was because no complete bikes were spec'd that way. Also the clutch RD is huge advantage for 1x making it more suitable for the masses.

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It doesn't really matter what Phil is saying, the music of his voice is the appropriate soundtrack for a bicycle race. HTupolev