Do we need it?

I use nearly all the gears at the back, but will only drop the front off the largest ring and onto the middle one if I want to climb a very steep hill or when I'm racing away from the lights.
Then again, if I would be able to safely put the chain on the large-large combination, I wouldn't use the middle ring either.

As for needing many gears at the back, I find that my Copperhead's 10-speed cassette allows for much better ratios than my Sbikes' 7-speed affair.
It may not be very noticeable when you're off-road, but let's be realistic here. Most of our bikes spend the majority of their time either commuting or cruising at near-constant speeds. In those circumstances the closer ratios of the 10-speed cassette allow a much better choice of gears.

I much prefer my 2 x 10 Boardman setup to the 3 x 8 FSR setup.

I use them all on the Boardman, but i never use them all on the FSR

Raging_Bulls":2uzt8cw3 said:

I use nearly all the gears at the back, but will only drop the front off the largest ring and onto the middle one if I want to climb a very steep hill or when I'm racing away from the lights.
Then again, if I would be able to safely put the chain on the large-large combination, I wouldn't use the middle ring either.

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You obviously don't ride anywhere with any steep and/or long climbs then?

Raging_Bulls":2uzt8cw3 said:

It may not be very noticeable when you're off-road, but let's be realistic here. Most of our bikes spend the majority of their time either commuting or cruising at near-constant speeds.

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Non of mine spend time commuting or cruising at constant speeds - I thought that this was a mountainbike forum?

Anyway - I can do most of my riding (say 90%?) on a singlespeed, and for other than racing I'd like a three speed, off road capable hub geared at something like 1.6, 1.0 and 0.6:1 with a genuine direct 1:1 ratio (not like the Alfine which isn't direct, even at 1:1.)
Make it high quality, light, robust, easy to service, as fast engaging as a Hope trials hub and cost less than £400 and I'd have one tomorrow.
Until then I like 8 speed Alfines - they plough through mud, undergrowth, heather, change while coasting and trackstanding, and geared at around 32:22 or 28:18 do all I need them to. I much prefer them to a derailleur system.

I run 1x9 and use about 6 or 7 of those at most. The top 2or3 are rarely touched.

When I was fit I chose to put a roadie cassette 9sp 12-27 vs 22-32-44 on my RTS, not so clever now I'm riding everyday when there's a steep long climb! I do like the close rationess of it which helps to adjust cadence finely.

My xizang is currently running 8sp 11-32 vs 24-36-46, this is a sensible easy gear but 46-11 off road is pretty bloody mental! Unfortunately 8sp 11-32 has some significant jumps in it.

I think the problem of 2 x 10 is the lower front ring is going to be in use most of the time, rather than sharing the wear with the granny ring, I'm not sure how much of an issue this will be over time.

CVT would be ideal, it would take off if it could supply a really wide range of gears.

I'll spend 90% of my time in the middle ring, 32t with an 11-32 cassette. Could easily get away with the granny ring and probably cope with getting ride of the big ring too. Haven't done it though as it'd cost to get a chain device to make it look right.

I spend most of my time on the 2x10 on the big ring! just using all of the rear cassette, only dropping onto the granny for climbs. Yet i spend most of my time on the 3x8 on the middle, again dropping onto the granny for climbs, but i dont tend to shift up to the large front ring very much.

I could not get away without a granny ring, some of the hills/mountains that i ride 100% need it, i can only imagine that a few people dont use a mountain bike for climbing mountains!

Depends what terrain you ride really, but I think any 2 x 8,9 or 10 set up works pretty well without compromise, with whatever size chainrings to suit the terrain & your level of fitness / willingness to push up the hills.

I am hoping that by having a 1x9, a 2x9 and a 3x9 I will have covered my full mountain bike requirements

I will be running 2+bash x 7, when I can get this chubby altus chainset off. Some numpty hammered on the drive side and mullered the thread's :roll: .