Taking my mind off other things by perusing gravel bikes. January is a bad time to get a new bike isn't it?
All my years as a #mtb’er have been without front gears, so it’s nice to see gravel bikes with 1x11 and even 1x12 shifting but with a broader "road" range. Not being a road biker I'm not sure what all is important, but it's fun to peruse.
@jerzone I'm still in the road/gravel 2x camp. Wide range cassette means too large of gear jumps. I like a consistent cadence.
@idropyou I'm guessing mechanical as well? I like the idea of “don't make me think" electronic shifting, but suspect the tradeoff is thinking about having a charge, etc...
@jerzone Yeah, all mechanical. I have no desire to charge even more damn batteries.
@idropyou I haven't done much road riding, so all of my exposure (if it can be called that) is from zwifting these last 4 months. The bike I use has 2x10/11-34, 50/34 and I almost always keep it in the big ring unless going up radio tower. “:^)
I'm a total newbie at trying to figure out gearing, using this site here's a comparison of that with a 1x12/10-45, 40t.
@jerzone Zwift's trainer difficulty setting needs to be adjusted up to get a better feeling of road gearing needs.
I used to run 50/34 when I raced road bikes, but find 46/34 chainrings about ideal for everyday riding. Then a 11-28, 12-27, or 11-26 cassette is perfect, but we're flatter here. Still fine for Western WI hills too.
On my CX bike, I have gone 1x but that was for racing. A 38t ring and 11-32 is pretty good for that and ok for everyday riding, but the jumps are more pronounced between cogs.
@idropyou I keep meaning to play with that slider, although I worry it’ll be a case of "no, no, too much reality!”