Gravel Bike Gears Guide: 1x V 2x Which Is Best For You?

Cycling Weekly

Getting the right gearing for you gravel bike is essential if you want to enjoy your off-road adventures.

Transcript

00:00 There has been a trend in off-road riding in recent years, and that is a reduction in

00:04 the number of chainrings on your bike and an increase in the size of the cassette.

00:09 In this video, we're going to let you in on the five key things you need to know about

00:13 gearing before choosing your gravel bike.

00:24 To calculate the number of gears your bike have, you need to take the number of sprockets

00:28 on your cassette and times it by the number of chainrings, which should mean that a two-by

00:33 setup is instantly the winner.

00:35 Yes, well, that's technically true that it does have more gears, but it's actually the

00:39 ratio of the gears and the range of the gears that has the biggest impact on how it rides.

00:44 That will be a little bit different for on and off-road riding too.

00:48 By range, we mean the spread in your gears.

00:52 The bigger your range, the smaller your smallest gear can be and the bigger your biggest gear

00:57 can be.

00:58 For example, with a two-by setup, say with Shimano's GRX system, that can have a 48-tooth

01:05 largest ring on the front and a 31-tooth smallest ring on the front.

01:09 It can pair that with a 34-tooth cassette on the back.

01:13 Those two chainrings on the front have a massive 17-tooth jump between them.

01:18 That is huge.

01:19 This is similar to SRAM's AXS system, which can use a 43 and a 30-tooth chainring on the

01:24 front and pair that with the lowest gear of a 36-tooth sprocket.

01:29 These massive ranges of gears are particularly beneficial if you're planning on using your

01:33 bike on both the tarmac, so a bit of road riding, but also if you plan to be winching

01:38 yourself up off-road climbs laden with heavy bikepacking bags.

01:42 That's not to say that you can't get a really good range with one-by.

01:45 Typically, on the front chainring, you might run something like a 38, 40, or 42-tooth chainring.

01:52 Then on the back, you can get something like a 10 or 11-tooth to 42-tooth.

01:56 However, increasingly popular is a mullet setup, so business at the front and party

02:01 at the back, where you have typically a gravel-specific chainring setup and then mountain biking-specific

02:08 equipment at the back in terms of your cassette and your rear mech.

02:12 That could be anything up to a huge 10-tooth to 50-tooth cassette, which is phenomenal

02:17 for winching up the really steep stuff.

02:20 If you are running a cassette that large on the back with a one-by setup on the front,

02:24 you are more likely to notice the jumps between the gears when you shift.

02:29 This can affect your cadence.

02:31 Cadence is how comfortable it feels to pedal, so how quickly your legs are spinning and

02:36 how easy it feels to move the bike along the trail.

02:39 With a bigger cassette, all of the shifting is put at the rear, which is this offset if

02:43 you use a two-by chainring because the bigger jump is at the front.

02:47 Remember that 17-tooth jump I spoke about.

02:50 This allows you to then have much tighter spacing on the rear cassette, so you can have

02:54 nice incremental gear changes of much smaller number of tees.

02:59 This is particularly useful if you live somewhere which isn't particularly hilly, or if it is

03:04 hilly, there are a consistent gradient, so you don't need to be dunking loads of gears

03:08 because you can just make nice little minute changes on the rear cassette, and it can be

03:12 much more comfortable on your legs.

03:14 However, if you're riding off-road and you have a one-by setup, you're less likely to

03:18 notice these bigger shifts in the gearing because you tend to be going a lot slower,

03:22 for example if you're doing a technical climb.

03:30 Now what I really love about a one-by system is the simplicity of it.

03:33 It's simply one lever to shift up and one lever to shift down.

03:37 So if you're guilty of cross-chaining when on the road with a double like me, it's really,

03:43 really easy because you don't have to worry about making sure that you're in the middle

03:46 of the cassette when you change the chainring.

03:48 And if you're riding off-road, it's just one less thing to think about and makes it super

03:52 easy and simple.

04:00 Now among the many other benefits of one-by, it's also a bit lighter.

04:03 You don't need a second chainring, a front mech, and all the other gubbins that comes

04:07 with that.

04:08 It's about 250 grams lighter.

04:09 Yeah, but how can it be that light when you're also running that much bigger cassette?

04:12 Ah, yeah, well, it's more aero.

04:15 That's who you're covered in mud and you've got your bike bags on.

04:18 That's hardly aerodynamic.

04:19 Okay, well, I just like how it looks.

04:22 Yeah, fair enough.

04:23 I do think it actually looks nicer than a double chainring.

04:32 Now lastly comes my favorite point, which is about reliability, especially if you're

04:36 heading out into an area such as this where you're quite remote from a good bike shop

04:40 or some help.

04:41 And that's because you don't have a front mech on the one-by system.

04:44 It's just one less thing to go wrong.

04:46 Now there is a minor argument to make here that a two-by system is less wearing on the

04:52 parts of your drivetrain.

04:54 So your chain is going to wear less because it's got a more efficient line and your cassette

04:57 is going to wear less as a result of that.

05:00 But I will admit it's a minor argument when you're riding off-road and you're riding in

05:05 the rain and just really muddy trails.

05:07 It's not going to make that much difference.

05:13 So there you go.

05:14 Two points for both one-by and two-by systems.

05:17 Really depends on use case, but obviously go for a two-by setup.

05:21 Absolutely one-by.

05:22 Well, it looks like we're not going to come to a conclusion together.

05:26 So why don't you let us know in the comment section below what you think.

05:29 And in the meantime, don't forget to like and subscribe to the Cycling Weekly YouTube

05:33 channel and we'll see you again soon.

05:35 [MUSIC PLAYING]

05:38 (whooshing)

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