UKH

I’m about to click buy on a new bike (Fairlight Secan) but can’t decide on 2x or 1x. Can someone please decide for me!

In reply to Herdwickmatt:

Where and what do you ride? If you do quite a lot of road miles AND a lot of offroad miles, I'd say the answer is different than if you just do one or the other...

In reply to beardy mike:It’s mainly a commuter, about 55min each way. 50/50 road and gravel/bits of single track. 
 

I’m not into club riding or doing big days on a bike (it interferes with running!)

In reply to Herdwickmatt:

What beardy mike said. I voted single but I might change my vote if you're expecting to mostly use it on roads and very gentle trails because I'm looking at it from a MTB perspective.

In reply to Herdwickmatt:

In that case, seeing as you're not looking to set the world on fire, 1x with a proper wide range cassette. So much less hassle than having a front derailleur, but it does mean you'll probably run a slightly smaller chainring to cope with steep ups if there are any...

In reply to beardy mike:

Four of my six bikes are 1x, but I'd go 2x for the OP's use.  

I have a 2x and a 3x for specific purposes.  And e.

In reply to Herdwickmatt:

2x - for what you've suggested it's usage will be. For one, the cassettes are a heck of a lot cheaper!

In reply to Herdwickmatt:

As others have said... It depends. But I'd opt for 2x since it's more versatile. I have 105 34-50 11-34 on my 'sensible' bike (various treaded fat tyres ~35-42mm, mudguards, 80% road, 20% off). It has pretty much superseded my hardtail MTB and does 80% of my road miles.

In reply to LastBoyScout:

Have you had a look at the Sunrace cassettes - they are a very reasonable price and they do absolutely fine shifting wise. They now do 12 speed cassettes for HG hubs so you really can get a cheap set up. But seeing as the bike the OP is buying is not exactly cheap I'm not sure that's much of a consideration? But in general I take peoples points, 2x is slightly more versatile, if only in the sense that you have marginally more range and you can fine tune your cadence. But then hat was why I was saying seeing as he's not out to set the world on fire, cos it's commuting...

In reply to Herdwickmatt:

I’d go 2x for that. I’ve got 1x on my ‘cross bike which is great as it’s one less thing to get clarted in shite and breaking but 2x is much better on the road and as someone else said, the cassettes will be cheaper and probably easier to source. 

In reply to beardy mike:

Good point, I forgot to mention cadence. One of the issues with 1x and a wide range cassette is there are huge jumps between gears and that can be a pain. On my road bikes, I find even 1 tooth difference at the back can make the difference between being comfortable or spinning too fast/grinding. Mountain bike, not so much, as it's such a more dynamic ride.

In reply to LastBoyScout:

Yep, this. 

In reply to Herdwickmatt:

Depending on the type of miles you are doing, flat road milage go with 2X.

I am in the peak and find I am either climbing or descending so find 1X on road is better I use 46 front and 11-42 rear.

My other bike 2X has 53/39 gearing but I find the drive line a lot noiser and find I am either in big cog and small chainring or small cog and large chainring most of the time

In reply to LastBoyScout:

Totally agree, who wants to be shelling out £100+ a cassette when they get destroyed by commuting and associated abuse.

In reply to beardy mike:

Plus one for Sunrace cassettes.

Very reliable, quite snazzy looking, good operation and cheaper as well.

Used to have Shimano XT 11-42 on my MTB. If I back pedalled whilst in bottom gear the chain would come down the cassette.

Changing to a Suntour cassette resolved the issue. Really, really pleased with Suntour cassette.

(People may ask why am I back pedalling. I am talking about cycling steep technical uphill where position of pedals is paramount for a power stroke. Alternative would be when I have failed on a steep technical and want to reset the position of the cranks to start off. Chainline is OK but MTB is short chainstay so quite sharp crossover angle.

In reply to Herdwickmatt:

as said unless on mostly flat routes then id suggest 40t and 11x42 10 or 11sp cassette

In reply to Yanis Nayu:

Same here, plus a Rohloff Speedhub for winter commuting until I sold that one to keep by bike number below D.

CB

In reply to Herdwickmatt:

For your use as described, defo 2x

(said as a 1x advocate)

In reply to Prof. Outdoors:

It's called ratcheting and it's a core MTB skill.

In reply to Herdwickmatt:

How hilly is it? max gradient? 

I would go for 1x very low ratio gearing,  30T 11-42T with 650b 2.2" tyres this still gives a max speed of 22mph at 100rpm, but allows you to easily stay in Z1/Z2 so adding 110mins of cycling a day won't interfere with your running.

In reply to Herdwickmatt:

Presumably depends whether you want two of the bikes or just one. 

In reply to LastBoyScout:

I hadn’t considered the cadence thing. I think have the right cadence is important to me, so I guess 2x is probs the best option.

Thanks for the help UKC

In reply to Herdwickmatt:

Go two - more versatile.

Say's the guy on a singlespeed

In reply to Herdwickmatt:

That’s a hell of a commuter! Would love to see the bike you ride for fun.

In reply to jt232:

Ha, so I got a really crappy injury about 7years ago which meant I couldn't ride or run for about 3years. It's only been this year I've got back on a bike, and my beautiful wife offered to buy me a new bike to celebrate the end of what was a really quite bleak period of time. I want a bike which I'll enjoy riding, enjoy looking at, and has some lovely design features. I think the Fairlight fits the bill (it's also on cycle to work so is a bit more reasonably priced!)

In reply to Herdwickmatt:

At about 15 miles of gravel and 15 miles of road every day you are going to eat drive trains.  11 speed 105 double, with disc brakes would be my choice.  If you've got much traffic on the road sections (ie stop start with traffic lights) then you will destroy rims with rim braking.  If it's flat, you'd be better off with a fixie with that mix.  I used to ride a mountain bike on that sort of ride and just left a fine trail of metal filings behind me, so I swapped to a fixie which just kept on running. 

More recently, my ride has been all road and that sort of distance - on a road bike, but in all weathers.  Every rotating component except for the rims, little ring and the cranks have been replaced (including the discs and pedals).  The front derailleur is original.

For daily commuting over that distance you really need something that has attachments for a baling machine, a plough and a seed drill.  I work on about £1/day in the kitty for maintenance/replacement.  Two spare tubes and a mini-fumpa pump - because there's nothing worse than changing a tough commuting tyre in the pissing rain, pinching a  tube and watching the CO2 disappear in a puff.  Or running through a patch of broken glass and getting two at the same time.