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

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

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

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

00:13before choosing your gravel bike.

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

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

00:33is instantly the winner.

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

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

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

00:47So by range we mean the spread in your gears and the bigger your range the smaller your

00:54smallest gear can be and the bigger your biggest gear can be.

00:58So for example with a two-by setup say with Shimano's GRX system that can have a

01:0448 tooth largest ring on the front and a 31 tooth smallest ring on the front and it can pair that

01:10with a 34 tooth cassette on the back.

01:12Now those two chainrings on the front have a massive 17 tooth jump between them that is huge.

01:19Now this is similar to SRAM's AXS system which can use a 43 and a 30 tooth chainring

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

01:28Now these massive ranges of gears are particularly beneficial if you're planning on using your bike

01:34on both the tarmac so a bit of road riding but also if you plan to be winching yourself up off-road

01:39climbs laden with heavy bike packing bags.

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

01:46Typically on the front chainring you might run something like a 38,

01:4940 or 42 tooth chainring and then on the back you can get something like a 10 or 11 to 42.

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

02:02where you have typically a gravel specific chainring setup and then mountain biking specific

02:09equipment at the back in terms of your cassette and your rear mech.

02:12So that could be anything up to a huge 10 to 52th cassette which is phenomenal for winching up the

02:18really steep stuff.

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

02:25more likely to notice the jumps between the gears when you shift and this can affect your cadence.

02:30Now cadence is how comfortable it feels to pedal so how quickly your legs are spinning and how how easy

02:36it feels to move the bike along the trail. So with a bigger cassette all of the shifting is put at the

02:42rear which this is offset if you use a two-by chainring because the bigger jump is at the front

02:47remember that 17 tooth jump I spoke about this allows you to then have much tighter spacing on

02:53the rear cassette so you can have nice incremental gear changes of much smaller number of teeth.

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

03:04they're of a consistent gradient so you don't need to be dunking loads of gears because you can just

03:08make nice little minute changes on the rear cassette and it can be much more comfortable on your legs.

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

03:19shifts in the gearing because you tend to be going a lot slower for example if you're doing a technical climb.

03:30Now what I really love about a one-by system is the simplicity of it it's simply one lever

03:34to shift up and one lever to shift down so if you're guilty of cross-chaining when on the road

03:40with a double like me it's really really easy because you don't have to worry about making sure

03:45that you're in the middle of the cassette when you change the chainring and if you're riding off-road

03:49it's just one less thing to think about and makes it super easy and simple.

03:53Now among the many other benefits of one-by it's also a bit lighter you don't need a second chainring

04:05or front mech and all the other gubbins that comes with that it's about 250 grams lighter.

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

04:13Ah yeah well it's more aero. Says who you're covered in mud and you've got your bike bags on that's hardly

04:18aerodynamic. Okay well I just like how it looks. Yeah fair enough I do think it actually looks nicer

04:25than a double chainring.

04:32Now lastly comes my favourite point which is about reliability especially if you're heading out into

04:37an area such as this where you're quite remote from a good bike shop or some help and that's

04:42because you don't have a front mech on the one-by system it's just one less thing to go wrong.

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

04:53drivetrain so your chain is going to wear less because it's got a more efficient line and your

04:57cassette is going to wear less as a result of that but I will admit it's a minor argument when you're

05:03riding off-road and you're riding in the rain and just really muddy trails it's not going to make that

05:09much difference. So there you go the points for both one-by and two-by systems really depends on

05:18use case but obviously go for a two-by setup. Absolutely one-by. Well it looks like we're not

05:24going to come to a conclusion together so why don't you let us know in the comments section below what

05:28you sink and in the meantime don't forget to like and subscribe to the Cycling Weekly YouTube channel

05:34and we'll see you again soon.

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