It’s not that I’m bored with it, but it’s about time I did something interesting, so I decided to “upgrade” my bicycle. I can’t say though that “upgrade” is a good word for it, but we’ll find out. I placed an order for all of the components necessary to redo my drive train from a 2x to a 1x in the front and an 11-speed 11-40t cassette in the back.
Here’s what’s coming:
A Shimano GRX FC-RX600-1 Crankset (comes with 40T chainring that I’m going to replace). I’m also shortening my cranks from 172.5 to 170.
A 42T Wolf Tooth Narrow-Wide Chainring.
A Shimano XT CS-M8000 11-speed 11-40T Cassette.
A Shimano CN-HG601QL 11-speed Chain.
A Wolf Tooth Roadlink (rear derailleur extension) – I plan on keeping my current 105 rear derailleur, but with the 40T cog on the back cassette, I need more room.
My intention is to someday change to a Salsa Woodchipper handlebar, but for now I’m holding off to break up the expenses a bit.
Because bike parts can be a bit expensive. Part of that’s good. Part of it’s bad. Of course the bad part is that the quality stuff can cost a lot. It’s all about the weight really. Here’s an example: the Woodchipper weighs 357 grams and costs $50. For the deluxe Woodchipper you pay $75 for 329 grams. The carbon version weighs only 230 grams – a whopping 109 grams less than the deluxe – but it also costs a whopping $215. I like to joke that “big pedal” is trying to sell us on clipless, “big gear” is selling us on a 2x front chainring, and “big handlebar” is…well, you do kind of need handlebars.
But the good part is the trickle-down effect in bike part technology. Shimano’s road bike workhorse is probably the 105 groupset right now. I’ve got it on my main bike, and I installed it myself as an upgrade on my other a few years back. And 105 tech has benefited over the years as higher-range components improve, so the 105 groupset I can put on my bike today is better than the Ultegra (the next up) from 5 years ago and Dura-Ace (one of the best) from 10 years ago (and by the way, that 105 upgrade was changing my old bike from a 10-year-old Ultegra groupset).
And the other good part about bike part cost being tied so much to weight is that I know where I can shave the weight when it comes to my bike, and it’s on the guy riding it.
So after a lot of thought and research, I came to the conclusion that two on the front means 1) one more ring than is really necessary, 2) having a front derailleur and all of its associated hardware and cabling, and 3) noise.
And I also found a great site that helped with the decision: gear-calculator.com. I was able to enter the information for my current 2x drive train (50/34 in the front and 11-32 in the back), wheel size, and cadence; then the program calculated the speed I would be doing at the cadence I selected for each gear combination. Through a “compare” function, I then entered information for a 1x to find out how it compared. I experimented with a 40, 42, and 44 in the front, and then was able to select 11-36, 11-40, 11-45 on the back to see how it would compare to my current setup. Here’s what I got:
I added the red-dashed lines myself to show the direct comparison. The 42T with 11-40 is on the bottom, my current setup is on the top. And you can see that they’re comparable throughout the range except at the very top. But since I seldom use a combination like 50-11 or -12 for cruising (I really only use it for downhills, and who needs to pedal that hard on a downhill?), it’s pretty clear that the setup works. A 42-11 matches fairly well with my typical cruising gear (50-13), and the 42-40 is just slightly better for climbing than my current lowest climbing gear (34-32). It all really depends on the style of riding and the topography of the area. And since I know my limitations with 34-32, I also know I can comfortably use the 42-40 on anything up to about 18% before I consider walking it after a few hundred meters…and there are only a couple of hills in the area where I’d have to sustain 18% or higher for that long.
So it’s all going down when the parts get here (hopefully) by the end of October. I’m looking forward to it. I’ll keep you posted.
Currently with John at his Cottage doing a couple of rides. I’ve been thinking about dialing into a more gravel type setup simply because of the condition of some of the roads here and the ability to comfortably use the trail systems. 32s are what I’m looking at for my build but that’s down the road a couple of years. I believe the roubaix only accommodates 30s but I need to double-check that. My recent upgrade was to tubeless tires. If you haven’t already done that you might want to consider it. It should give you a little added comfort along with the 32s.
I honestly don’t know about tubeless. I’ve had less trouble on my tubes than i’ve seen others with their tubeless. But I’ve ridden a bike with the Woodchipper bars and they’re a real treat.