My journey from 1x to 2x and back
I am a mountain biker at heart, and I have been riding 1x drivetrains since it wasn’t cool, one of those people who’ve been hating front derailleurs way before SRAM was advertising to ditching them.
But can you actually ditch that front derailleur on a drop bars bike? What does that mean? How will it affect the ride?
Those were all the questions I had in my mind when I was building my Open U.P.
What’s the 1x for gravel state of the art
Let’s look at the market at the moment: SRAM has completely blown away Shimano on the gravel market, everyone is going 1x but, hey let’s talk it straight: I love SRAM for their transmission but they have serious problems with the brakes! Jesus they squeal! And I like my bike to be quiet!
Shimano after Sram
My love for simplicity led me to buy a Force 1 group, I loved the crisp, faultless shifting as much as I hated the squealing in the wet. 2 years later I was on a 2x Ultegra (you can’t use shimano11x mountain derailleurs on-road shifters, unless they’re di2, meaning no 1x Shimano without electronics).
But also Shimano is not perfect
I don’t think I should talk about how the Japanese group works right? It is f****ing amazing. Brakes too, even if MTB brakes from the same brand are now being questioned, on the road bike they’re really good!
I’ve been happy with my setup and, a year later, I went for this gravel event in the black forest: > 100km, steep climbs AND steep descents.
I will be forever grateful I had Ultegra brakes, but pushing road gearing up there is tough! (Yes, I know I could get fitter).
So what did I learn?
To build that quiver killer probably a 1x drive train makes more sense: less maintenance, lower gearing and higher cool factor, wanna argue with cadence? be my guest: you’re right! jumps between each sprocket are big, but we are not talking about a purebred racehorse here, you won’t chop down a tree with your swiss army knife either, will you?
So I don’t want di2, I like those old school cables, and to me makes no sense to carry the bike up home to charge it, GRX is a sort of a chimera and I don’t like SRAM brakes, How do I get out of this? How do I get the perfect gravel group?
I could put an XTR derailleur on a di2 Ultegra and use a 10x42 cassette with a 38t Wolf Tooth single ring on the Ultegra arms, spend a ton of money and a lot of time fiddling around. Too bad: Shimano keeps ignoring my questions about GRX derailleur and Ultegra shifters compatibility.
Can I make my SRAM brakes work? I was hopeless until Hope Tech (sorry I know it sounds terrible), a UK based company that has been producing the best MTB brakes I’ve ever laid my fingers on, started making SRAM compatible road brake calipers. It seems I will be ditching Shimano from my drop bar whip too, sorry for you guys but you have been waiting too long.
