1x10: My thoughts

This past year I’ve been riding my mountain bike with a 1x10 gear setup, one chainring in the front and 10 speeds in the back.  I was fortunate to get my bike this way out of the box thanks to Specialized making their Epic Expert Carbon 29er in this configuration in addition to the more standard 2x10, I say more standard, but the 2x10 setup has really only been out for a year and a half or so. 

I have absolutely love this setup (it’s lighter, I never have to worry about shifting the front derailleur and my chainline is much better), and will be setting up any mountain bike I have for the foreseeable future this way, even if I have to convert a 3x10 or 2x10 setup to the 1x10, by swapping chainrings and adding a chain guide.  Previously I had used the standard 3x9 (on a 26” bike) setup and while doing mountain bike rides and used the middle chainring exclusively, while racing I would use mostly the big chainring.  In both cases I was cross chained a lot, while riding I was to the outside of the cassette, and while racing I was toward the inside of the cassette, by no means ideal in either situation.

Two things have made running a 1x10 setup easier than it had been in the past:  11-36 cassettes and 29” wheels.  When Sram and later Shimano went to 10 speed mountain bike cassettes the biggest cog went from 32 to 36 (in most cases), this expanded the gear range of the cassette by more that 10%.  If you are using a 29” wheel not only will each of your gears will be more than 20% bigger (something crank manufactures haven’t quite got their heads around in my mind, you’ve got to be a compete monster to turn over a 42x11 on a 29er), but the gear range will ALSO be more than 20% wider.  When you combine these two factors the gear range is well over 30% wider than 1x9 setup and 26” wheels (the downside to this is the gaps between gears is also more than 30% wider, something that I haven’t noticed to be a problem at all). 

It is important to get correct front chainring for yourself, a 34 has been perfect for me:  I’ve never needed anything easier than a 34/36, and while I have spun up the 34/11 I certainly haven’t been able to spin it out.  It’s pretty easy to get 32 and 34 tooth single speed chain rings (you definitely want a single speed ring so the chain doesn’t get dropped), if you need anything smaller that’s where you might run into some issues, and they aren’t mass produced to my knowledge.  I know you can get a 30 tooth ring/spider from Homebrewed Components (a couple of the guys on the BikeSource MTB team have gotten them).  Also you definitely need a good chain guide to keep the chain on the chainring, I’ve had really good luck with my minimalistic Specialized one (I drop the chain a couple times during the Spring/Summer, but since then haven’t dropped a chain once) and I know a bunch of guys on the MTB team have been running models from E-thirteen with a lot of success

A couple items to think about before rushing off to the bike shop to set your mountain bike up 1x10.  Riding in Charlotte we don’t have any extended climbs that you might encounter in other area, that might make a 1x10 set-up not ideal for climbing, my suggestion would be to look at the smallest gear you are using and make sure that you’ll be able to get that small of a gear ratio.  To go along with that if you ride in the big ring a lot see what range of the cassette you are using and make sure you have that covered in your setup.  Also a chain guide is designed to keep the chain on the chainring, and it can be pretty hard to get the chain back on if it comes off (I always kept a multi-tool with me to be able to move the chainguide if the chain came off).