This is what I use when faced with questions like this:
https://www.bikecalc.com/archives/speeds.html

at 100 rpm 50/10 will have you at 63km/h; 54/11 will have you at 61.8km/h

Have been playing around with a 56t 1x and 10/33. Was great till about mile 7 of Mt. Lemmon. RPMs were down to 72. I'm not super light, but I *think* 10/36 would have been perfect.

As stated above the gear calc is a good start point. From there I went up to a 56t front so I would never spin out on a descent. Do you have the means to buy multiple front rings? Does it have the mid cage rear der. That will allow you to go up to 10/36.

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http://www.researchms.org/trifest/

I prefer to factor in crank length using Sheldon’s Gain Ratio: http://yojimg.net/...b_tools/gearcalc.php

To the OP, I’ve done StG 70.3/Snow Canyon multiple times on a 50x33 with no issue.

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wovebike.com | Wove on instagram

surely you set the KOM on the downhill Lemmon segment with that gearing though?

I’m in flatass Florida too. My 1x is 50 and 10-28. Hasn’t been an issue.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

I just switched to 1x. I have a 54x(11-32) and does well with my mostly flat rides around 18-21mph avg. Even my shorter hills are okay but slightly lower RPM than I would like. You should be good.

ETA. Use the gear calculator and find out what gear ratio your smallest gear would be. Then ride your current bike and only allow yourself to shift down to the equivalent gear of what you will have on the 1x bike. That will give you an understanding of how it feels.

You will probably not be happy with the 50-10 combo. Get a 52 at least.

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I love rim brake bikes!

50-10 is a bigger gear than the 54-11 he has now.

Unless you mean he just won't like the 10 in general because of efficiency reasons.

First of all let's do some math.

50/33=1.51 42/25=1.68
You have an easier climbing gear on the 1x
50/10=5.0 54/11=4.9
That's close enough I'd call it no difference.

If you're fast enough to be using a 54/11 regularly with no hills around then you're either too fast to be posting questions like this or have a cadence low enough to be worried about that first.

I use a 50 for hilly races, and a 54 for the rest. I'll swap cassettes too between 14-28, 11-30, and 11-32. I think if I were you in Florida I'd go with a 54, and swap to a bigger cassette for training if needed. 50/10 is already a bigger gear, but sram axs is not going to be the most efficient, certainly in the 10t cog. You'll be set for gears its more about drivetrain marginal gains. It's probably hard to buy a 54 for sram, other than aftermarket.

50x 10-33 is actually a considerably wider range than 54/42x11-25. Bigger jumps between gears too:
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 19 21 23 25
10 11 12 13 14 15 17 19 21 24 28 33

A 50x 10-30 is the same range and jumps as your 11 speed. A 54x 11-32 has the same range as your current setup, fwiw.

50/10=5.0
54/11=4.91
with a simple calculator
1.8% harder

who many times do you spin with 54/11?
in my opinion, 48 would be much more useful for 95% of the triathlete population
you live in Florida but i guess you want to do races outside Florida.
i own the 1x 48 and i also suggest you to have 10/36 cassette

I live in Florida as well. On my most recent bike, I originally had a 50T chain ring (2x) with a 10T cog which was fine for gearing. I never needed the small chainring. But I swapped to a 54T (2x) chain ring because of efficiency reasons. Felt that I was giving up too much friction losses with 50T chainring.

I wish I could get my hands on a 1x 54T chainring that SRAM gives the pros. I’ve only seen the 50T available to us commoners.

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blog

I just posted two 1x chainrings in the classifieds, 52T, if the OP needs an option…

Well have a think about how much you currently ride using your small chainring? Like me, probably never. I think the only time the small chainring got used on my old TT was testing out the front derailleur. On a 1x now and I've not missed having 2. Even with hills you could probably get away with a 1x if you had the right cassette.

Yup. I also live in flat Florida. The biggest thing I have to climb are bridges over to the barrier islands, which, at 77 years old, I can still do on a 52x25. However for racing, I switch over to a 12-23 rear and choose the front chainring (52,54,56) for the best chainline in my middle gears, depending on the course/wind. Swapping out your front chainring, when there is no front derailleur involved, is a piece of cake - don't limit yourself.

I had the same issue, so bought a 54T chainring from Garbaruk to complete my 1x 12 SRAM rebuild. Works nicely.