That’s the connection that I hadn’t made in my head before, and your point earlier about the inertia of the cassette/freehub makes sense of how this could happen.

I found a 10spd ultegra FD and 11spd Red FD in my spare parts bin. But, it might just be easier to try 1x while I leave the etap FD on but without a battery. Even though I plan on buying the 2x praxis rings as my primary setup, I may also buy an xsync 1x ring for experimentation/curiosity purposes. Resale is pretty high on those rings, so if it doesn’t work well then I can easily sell it used and only be out about $15.

Any thoughts on a more elegant solution to add a front mechanical shifter for 2x other than putting one in my drop bar end?

I suppose I could do a MTB shifter mounted to my bar tops. Space is limited on my bars since they have a flat aero top.

I wonder if there is a way to mount a friction shifter the the side of my stem.

Not trying to be a smartass, but how about one of these?:

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Ha! Well, I need both etap shifters. And all my hydro lines are already run through the frame, and brakes are dialed in.

Oh ...

Well, with the huge FD etap battery getting in the way of your rear tire options, I think (at some point) maybe migration to shimano mechanical or shimano di2 might need to be in the works ...

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The chain can't be forced to the side at the ring; the teeth prevent this. It needs to go up first.

Agreed.

But the chain can be forced to the side before it gets to the chainring.

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There are definitely ways to mount a shifter near the stem clamp or on the stem, but on a well-fit road bike that's usually a poor location, since from most riding positions you have to lift your arm up and horizontally and bend the elbow to reach the shifter. Stem shifters were used on cheap road bikes back in the day because road-bike-shaped-objects were fashionable but the comfort-hybrid-riding crowd still needed to be accommodated: someone riding the tops all day with their arms outstretched would have to bend down to reach bar-end or downtube shifters.

So? That isn't going to make it come off unless it can also go up at the ring.

I think your thing might protect against chain drop caused at the top of the chain ring, e.g. some sort of sinusoidal wave from a bump.

But most chain drops, I think, come from the bottom. The chain is often under less tension at the bottom (which is why clutch RDs provide a minimum tension for the chain length from the bottom of the ring to the RD, and mountain RD's have stronger springs to begin with). Also chainsuck issues come from the bottom.

My worry is that if you pin the chain against the top of the chainring, you'll be more likely to damage the chain in those situations if you try to recover while riding.

E.g. the FD and FD-like chaincatcher that DSW is talking about isn't so much designed to keep the chain from coming off the teeth, but to allow it to feed gracefully back on. Sometimes without even rider knowing. Sometimes with those times while you gingerly soft pedal while the feeding action takes places.

When the chain gets pinned against something is when you risk bending a link, and that's generally awful in a race. E.g. I'm thinking if the chain comes off from the bottom and gets hard-wedge against the chainstay or crank arm. And also restrained by your catcher. If you don't immediately stop turning the crank, I think you'd get a strong lateral lever force against a link. Which is bad.

That said, I'm just speculating. Maybe your top-of-the-ring thing would work great.

Edit: Maybe we want your thing at the bottom! A little thing at the bottom that kills any waves come from the rear, and also prevents chain suck by ripping the chain off the teeth if they get stuck would be awesome!

I don't see it being a problem unless maybe you try to pedal backwards when the chain is coming off. If you pedal forwards the chain goes right back on the ring where it belongs. You can demonstrate this on the stand.

BTW, loads of riders (pros even) race 1x TT with no clutch or keeper, just a NW ring. That's what I'm running.

As am I. Never dropped a chain in 3 years of 1x training and racing.

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I only have 1 year on it, but have ridden on rough roads and smacked into some big potholes with no chain drop. Most likely a "perfect storm" of factors could knock it off, though.

I initially tried with a normal ring, and that derailed the first time I shifted to the 11t...

Same. NW+WiFli medium cage RD. I rode my TT bike exclusively last year, and the year before. I've dropped the chain exactly 3 times. The first time was in a race, and it caught me off guard. I didn't know what happened. The other two were in training---and I was paying enough attention to what i'd just done. I was also able to correlate that back to the time it dropped in the race.

All three times I jumped all the way to the small cog from at least mid-way up the casette. In the race I crested a hill, and wanted to stay on top of the gear and get up to descending speed quickly. I slammed my palm on the shifter to go straight to the rear cog. Both drops in training were exactly the same scenario. Since then, I move the shifter just slow enough to let the chain climb down the casette rather than be yanked down. No more drops.

Maybe a clutch RD would do the same thing.

Gravel adds a lot more risk, with washboards, big holes, double track MMRs, etc.

I wouldn't hesitate to run a NW on my TT bike and call it all good, but i don't think that will work with my gravel calendar.

Sure, I do as well no smooth races courses. In training and on rougher race courses I use clutch RD. They're pretty easy to swap in and out, indexing is all the same, etc.

There's almost no reason to *not* use one now. Why choose the solution that has a low probability of a dropped chain vs. the one that has almost no probability of a dropped chain?

I used to not use them in the past out of vague concerns of loss of efficiency. Now it seems those concerns may not be as big a deal as once thought. I'm just now finishing my new TT build with the Shimano GRX RX812. With both a clutch on/off switch and adjustable spring tension, seems the best of all worlds.