26” Endurance Ride Cunningdale build.
- Thread starter doctor-bond
- Start date
Oh my....
I really dig what you are trying to do, but that 1 x 3 set-up needs binning:
- Front changes under heavy load are dreadful, it you so happen to be caught out in surprise territory.
- I have never broke a chain with a rear change, only front.
- Hell, you are almost lugging around half a rear mech as it is....
Double up front, fairly wide at the back. Take a leaf out of some tourers, and just specify your two front ring sizes based on the
strength of your legs, terrain, and bike. Typically, only a 10T jump at the front is about equiv. to three sprockets at the back; nothing
to stop you doing a 14T jump at the front with most FDs.
I really dig what you are trying to do, but that 1 x 3 set-up needs binning:
- Front changes under heavy load are dreadful, it you so happen to be caught out in surprise territory.
- I have never broke a chain with a rear change, only front.
- Hell, you are almost lugging around half a rear mech as it is....
Double up front, fairly wide at the back. Take a leaf out of some tourers, and just specify your two front ring sizes based on the
strength of your legs, terrain, and bike. Typically, only a 10T jump at the front is about equiv. to three sprockets at the back; nothing
to stop you doing a 14T jump at the front with most FDs.
doctor-bond
Feature Bike
Having slept on this, I’m inclined to agree Woz. I’ve used 3x1 for years offroad, but those rides are relatively short high intensity excercise, and you set the gearing to the low end and compromise high.
For the coast to coast I can’t afford to compensate for lack gears by stomping hills and headwinds - I’ll need to keep an even cadence and conserve energy. And I’ll need a decent high gear to keep the average speed up.
I run 2x9 on my tourer and know that copes. Will start to move this in that direction, although it’s a shame to loose the bonkers element of 3 gears.
For the coast to coast I can’t afford to compensate for lack gears by stomping hills and headwinds - I’ll need to keep an even cadence and conserve energy. And I’ll need a decent high gear to keep the average speed up.
I run 2x9 on my tourer and know that copes. Will start to move this in that direction, although it’s a shame to loose the bonkers element of 3 gears.
I reckon your top end gear should be at least sufficient to keep up with a bunch of roadies on a straight fairly shallow descent with a tail wind. On my cross bike (light knobblies, but a bigger outer diameter than most 700c road tyres) I struggle with this running a 42T x 11T, and will spin out and loose contact - my only hope to regain contact is a corner where hopefully the group will string out, late braking (if at all) and pedal around the corner. Twisty hair-pin type of descents is usually not an issue and the yo-yoing is actually rather fun....it's like I've lost 8 bike lengths at the end of the straight, got it down to 4 right into the hair-pin, and out of the hair-pin I'm back on a wheel again for a while.
For a 26" you may be looking at around 48T up front. So, you would then be looking at 34T small ring.
Mate that to a 11-30 cassette, with any 9 speed short cage MTB mech or long cage road mech and you should be fine. Even a humble STX-RC will handle that which of course will allow you to drill holes in it!
For a 26" you may be looking at around 48T up front. So, you would then be looking at 34T small ring.
Mate that to a 11-30 cassette, with any 9 speed short cage MTB mech or long cage road mech and you should be fine. Even a humble STX-RC will handle that which of course will allow you to drill holes in it!
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