I’m “the 1x guy” at every group ride.
This is who I am now. 1x and I are inseparable.
I started my 1x road bike experiment nearly two years ago with a 1x Specialized Aethos. I put over 5,000 miles on that setup until this spring, when I built up a 1x Cervelo Soloist. I’ve used these 1x road bikes to do a ton of fast group rides, some local crit races, and I even rode the legendary Triple Bypass.
Where it all started for me — August, 2022 — I haven't been the same since...
In trying to rationalize using a 1x on the road, I keep going to the same word: simplicity.
There are other potential benefits too — improved aerodynamics, lower weight, better chain retention — but for me, the biggest benefit is simply removing the front derailleur from my bike AND mind. I don’t like front derailleurs these days. To me, they’re extra. An extra thing to shift. An extra component to tune and maintain.
Removing the front derailleur from my road bike was like getting laser eye-surgery after a lifetime of wearing glasses and contacts. Necessary? No. But nice? Extremely. When shifting a hundred times per ride, it’s simply one less thing to think about. It’s a first-world luxury. It makes me happy. That’s why I ride 1x.
In the early days, I held myself back from proselytizing too much and just said my 1x road bike was, “Okay.” I also said, "It's not for racers." But now, after two years of riding a 1x, I want to change my answer to, “I fricken love it and it's great for racers!”
I’m convinced that I’ll never go back to using a front derailleur and I truly think 1x road bikes are the future. They’re only going to get better and more common. Feeling worried? Disgusted? Don’t be. You don’t have to like it, but 1x road bikes aren’t as weird or silly as you might think.
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Modern 1x Options Have the Gear Range To Do It All
It kind of surprises me how many people think that 1x won’t provide enough gear range for them. This hasn’t been the case for me.
If you want some context, I’m pretty average among dedicated cyclists. My threshold hovers around ~3.5 W/kg. In races, I generally finish mid-pack. While I’m not an athletic specimen, I’d still call myself “fit.” At my level, I find a 46t chainring provides ample gear range with a 10-44t cassette.
I can use the top gear, but I can’t spin it out. When pedaling my 46x10t at 110 RPM, I’m going over 40 MPH. How often do you need to do that? That’s more than enough top-end for my needs.
Chilling in the 46x38t at the top of Loveland Pass.
I can also tackle the toughest Colorado climbs. I’m no climbing superstar, but my 46x44t granny gear is enough to conquer Superflag, my local climbing test piece, with relative ease. I even took on The Triple Bypass this year. It’s 118 miles long with 10,800 feet of elevation gain and it tackles Juniper Pass, Loveland Pass, and Vail Pass. Guess what — the 1x handled it all, uphill and down, and I never wished for more gears.
Is it possible that YOU need more gear range than me? Maybe. But after testing my setup on a wide range of riding from fast group rides and crits to my biggest climbing days, I’d be surprised if a “regular” rider like me actually needs more. I think the current XPLR 10-44t cassette nailed the range.
With a 46t chainring, SRAM XPLR is comparable to a traditional semi-compact 2x setup with 52/36t chainrings and an 11-34t cassette. With a 44t, it’s close to a 50/34t chainrings with an 11-34t cassette. With a 48t, it has the same top-end of a 53/39t + 11-34t setup but an easier granny gear.
This 1x Canyon Ultimate has an 11-52t Rotor cassette for maximum range. Photo: VC Adventures/Shane Trotter
If, for some reason, you want or need more range than that, you could also build a 1x road bike with a SRAM Eagle AXS MTB derailleur and 10-50t or 10-52t cassette or Campagnolo Ekar GT with a 10-48t cassette. Using these cassettes will give you MORE range than any traditional 2x setup.
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Jumps Between Gears? Meh... Whatever
The other big criticism I often hear about 1x systems: bigger steps between gears.
A 11-34t Shimano 2x cassette is much tighter than a 10-44t SRAM 1x cassette.
On a wide-range 1x cassette, the jumps from one gear to the next are larger than on a 2x cassette (2-3 teeth vs. 1 tooth). Some riders dislike this because it makes it harder to maintain the optimal cadence. If you’re picky about your cadence, a bigger jump when shifting gears might make you feel like you have to mash harder or spin faster than what’s comfortable. This can also make it harder to stay attached to a fast-moving group.
When I rode my 1x road bike for the first time, I could feel it. The 11t-to-13t jump on SRAM XPLR cassettes and 10t-to-12t jump on SRAM Eagle cassettes are the most noticeable. I even warned some people about it. But after riding my 1x road bike for 2 years, I don’t even notice it anymore.
My 1x at Tuesday Night Thunder.
My SRAM XPLR cassette isn’t even the most tightly spaced 1x cassette option on the market, but a shift into any gear changes my cadence by 10 RPM at most. It’s often even less than that. Maybe some riders are picky enough to get thrown off this, but I’m not. I’ll be in a fast paceline or a crit, shifting between the 11t, 13t, and 15t cogs at the top of my XPLR cassette, and it just feels normal.
Our bodies are incredibly adaptable, and I think you will get used to whatever you have. I train and race on a 1x, so now, that’s what feels good. Switching back to a tighter cassette when I test other bikes actually feels weird now. Like I need to shift twice. Ultimately, for most riders, I don’t think 2- or even 3-tooth jumps between cogs are going to be the difference between hanging on or getting dropped. It’s all on you.
Okay, There Is One (Small) Weakness
Compared to a 2x drivetrain, the chain angles on a 1x drivetrain are more severe at the extremes (the highest and lowest gears) of the cassette. Higher chain angles increase friction between the rollers and plates in the chain, which reduces efficiency. Also, the narrow-wide chainring teeth that 1x drivetrains use for extra chain retention also create a bit more friction than the teeth used on 2x chainrings.
Independent testing by VeloNews and CeramicSpeed has shown that 1x drivetrains are 1-6 watts less efficient than 2x drivetrains (see their image above). Bummer. Can I actually notice a 1-6 watt loss while riding though? No, of course not.
Frictional losses are greatest in the highest and lowest gears, and they’re minimized when the chain is in the middle of the cassette where it’s straighter. If you’ve chosen the right size 1x chainring, you spend the majority of your riding time in the middle of the cassette anyway. For me, I just don’t worry about it. 1-6 watts won’t ruin my fun.
It also hasn’t stopped pros, who definitely care about watts and efficiency, from running 1x either (more on that below).
There Are Dozens of Us… DOZENS!
Lotte Kopecky, Elisa Balsamo, and Marianne Vos sprinting for the win on 1x bikes.
There was a time, not so long ago, that whenever I brought up using a 1x drivetrain on a road bike I’d get bombarded with dismissive and even angry comments:
“You’re so dumb.”
“1x is pointless on the road.”
“This is a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.”
“You evil bike industry shill! Don’t try to sell us junk we don’t need!”
“I still love my triple crankset.”
The tone has shifted dramatically in the last few years. In my 2022 1x road bike post, the comments were a lot more supportive. Some riders even said they had built up 1x road bikes and loved them. I feel joy knowing that there are others out there.
An even bigger source of validation though has been the rise of 1x drivetrains in professional racing.
Mads Pedersens's 1x Trek Madone for Paris Roubaix. Photo: SRAM
A few years ago, some riders started experimenting with 1x drivetrains for Paris-Roubaix. This past year at Paris-Roubaix, I saw more 1x bikes than ever. 1x makes a lot of sense at Roubaix. It’s flat and rough, and more similar to a gravel race than most World Tour events. You don’t need that much gear range and the extra chain retention of a narrow-wide chainring and clutch-equipped 1x derailleur can help keep you in the race.
Surely though, all the pros still choose a 2x for races with smooth roads and a lot of climbing, right? Last year, however, two of the world’s best riders, Primoz Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard, surprised everyone by using 1x bikes in mountain stages at the Giro and Tour de France.
Primoz Roglic dominating the final Giro time trial. Photo: Tim de Waele / Getty Images
At the 2023 Giro d’Italia, Primoz Roglic used a Cervelo R5 equipped with a SRAM AXS XPLR drivetrain similar to mine. He had a 44t chainring paired with a 10-44t cassette which allowed him to spin up the steepest climbs. After testing the setup out with a few cheeky bike swaps on earlier stages, he used his 1x bike to blast up the final uphill time trial to take the overall win. (He did drop his chain, but that happens on 2x bikes too!)
Jonas Vingegaard used his 1x S5 extensively during the 2023 & 2024 Tour de France. Photo: ASO/Pauline Ballet
Even more exciting though is Jonas Vingegaard’s using 1x at the Tour de France. He rides a 50t chainring on his Cervelo S5 aero bike paired with a 10-32t or 10-36t cassette. That doesn’t sound like a nice setup for climbing for us mortals, but Jonas has used this on some of the biggest mountain stages of the Tour de France. In 2023, he rode his 1x during the 1st week, which featured tough Basque Country climbs, and he ended up winning the Tour. This year, he used his 1x S5 on several critical mountain stages to nab an impressive second place.
Cynical commenters have claimed that it’s SRAM, who sponsors the team, pushes riders to use 1x. But top-level teams like this don't let brands pressure them when it comes to using equipment. They’ll sometimes even mix and match competing brands to try and get the best setup possible. Nothing we see used in a race is used at random. They test everything during the preseason months and use what they think will give them an edge over the competition. Primoz and Jonas are out to win, and they choose 1x for a reason.
Jonas Vingegaard and Wout van Aert using 1x at the Tour de France. Notice their teammates have 2x. It's their choice. Photo: Tim de Waele / Getty Images
Of course, we normies generally shouldn’t copy what the pros do. But these specific cases are interesting to me because the pro peloton is notorious for being a bit more conservative than regular bike geeks when it comes to progressive tech (see disc brakes, wide tires, and tubeless tires) because they always want to use what is proven to work. The fact that 1x drivetrains are being used in the most important races, however, gives me a lot of confidence that 1x is a serious high-performance option.
Final Thoughts
Ultimately, bikes and components are all stupid. No cyclist NEEDS a 1x road bike. All I’m doing is playing and tinkering with a bunch of toys. It’s geeky and fun.
Fun is the whole reason I add any upgrade to my bike. Carbon fiber wheels, hydraulic disc brakes, tubeless tires, and electronic drivetrains were all once components I thought were unnecessary. Now I love them. They all make riding my bike a bit more enjoyable, and for me, that’s enough to make them worthwhile (as long as I can afford them).
To me, 1x is just more fun. I enjoy using it more than 2x. I prefer how it looks and feels. I prefer it conceptually too. Why have two derailleurs when one gets the job done? Maybe I just like being weird and different. Maybe all future road bikes will look like mine. Only time will tell.
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