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 ratio of the gears

00:40and the range of the gears that has the biggest impact on how it rides and that will be a little

00:44bit 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 smallest

00:55gear can be and the bigger your biggest gear can be. So for example with a two-by setup say with

01:01Shimano's GRX system that can have a 48 tooth largest ring on the front and a 31 tooth smallest

01:08ring on the front and it can pair that with a 34 tooth cassette on the back. Now those two chainrings

01:14on the front have a massive 17 tooth jump between them that is huge. Now this is similar to SRAM's

01:20AXS system which can use a 43 and a 30 tooth chainring on the front and pair that with the

01:25lowest gear of a 36 tooth sprocket. Now these massive ranges of gears are particularly beneficial

01:32if you're planning on using your bike on both the tarmac so a bit of road riding but also if you plan

01:37to be winching yourself up off-road climbs laden with heavy bike packing bags. Now that's not to say

01:43that you can't get a really good range with one by typically on the front chainring you might run

01:48something like a 38 40 or 42 tooth chainring and then on the back you can get something like a 10

01:54or 11 to 42. However 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 equipment

02:09at the back in terms of your cassette and your rear mech so that could be anything up to a huge 10 to

02:1550 tooth cassette which is phenomenal for winching up the really steep stuff. Now if you are running a

02:21cassette that large on the back with a one by setup on the front you are more likely to notice the jumps

02:27between the gears when you shift and this can affect your cadence. Now cadence is how comfortable

02:32it feels to pedal so how quickly your legs are spinning and how how easy it feels to move the bike along the

02:38trail. So with a bigger cassette all of the shifting is put at the rear which this is offset if you use

02:44a two by chainring because the bigger jump is at the front remember that 17 tooth jump I spoke about

02:50this allows you to then have much tighter spacing on the rear cassette so you can have nice incremental

02:56gear changes of much smaller number of teeth. Now this is particularly useful if you live somewhere which

03:01isn't particularly hilly or if it is hilly they're of a consistent gradient so you don't need to be

03:07dunking loads of gears because you can just make nice little minute changes on the rear cassette and

03:12it can be much more comfortable on your legs. However if you're riding off-road and you have a one by setup

03:17you're less likely to notice these bigger shifts in the gearing because you tend to be going a lot

03:21slower for example if you're doing a technical climb. Now what I really love about a one by system is

03:32the simplicity of it it's simply one lever to shift up and one lever to shift down so if you're guilty

03:38of cross-chaining when on the road with a double like me it's really really easy because you don't

03:44have to worry about making sure that you're in the middle of the cassette when you change the chainring

03:48and if you're riding off-road it'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

04:18that's hardly aerodynamic. Okay well I just like how it looks. Yeah fair enough I do think it

04:24actually looks nicer than a double chainring. Now lastly comes my favourite point which is about

04:34reliability especially if you're heading out into an area such as this where you're quite remote from

04:40a good bike shop or some help and that's because you don't have a front mech on the one by system it's

04:44just one less thing to go wrong. Now there is a minor argument to make here that a two by system

04:51is less wearing on the parts of your drivetrain so your chain is going to wear less because it's got

04:55a more efficient line and your cassette is going to wear less as a result of that but I will admit

05:02it's a minor argument when you're riding off-road and you're riding in the rain and just really muddy

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

05:10So there you go the points for both one by and two by systems really depends on use case but

05:19obviously go for a two by setup. Absolutely one by. Well it looks like we're not going to come

05:25to a conclusion together so why don't you let us know in the comments section below what you think

05:29and 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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