You really went the extra mile here and it's appreciated. This has helped me loads to decide which way to go. Thanks

As Mr Quindazzi says the most important 1x problem is that you have to commit to a single chainring. If you go too extreme you will end up lacking. 34T will allow you to be almost in an MBT but you will not be able to race to much, and 46T might give you enough speed but you will have to be very strong to be able to climb a lot, even on a 10-36T cassette. The bottom line is that on gravel you might go 2x to have some "good for everything" bike or go 1x a commit a little more on what are you going to mostly do with your bike, road or climbs....

I recently decided to refurbish my old bike and think about modernizing the drivetrain. I had my last bike 25 years ago so it's been a while and so much has changed since. Nice to see this video. Saved me some time and an Excel spreadsheet;)

Just found your site and it’s great! I’m also an engineer so I really appreciate the details. I did similar analysis on 1x a couple of years ago. I changed my 3 mountain bikes to 1x. Best move ever. My girlfriend is a novice rider and struggled with 2x. She was always cross chaining and confused, especially in the woods. Now that she’s on 1x, she’s significantly improved because she doesn’t think about shifting. I strongly recommend 1x for anyone new to mt biking because of the simplicity. Keep the good videos coming!

Started out on a 1x mountain bike and always felt like I didn't have enough top end speed. Went 2x (50/34) on my gravel bike with an 11-40 cassette and I finally found an almost perfect system for climbing up and sprinting on flats and descents.

Yup, I been a roadie for over 10 years. Just recently jumped to a gravel bike & hard tail MTB. Gear gaps are just insane, for a roadie...its taking time to get use to it

Just went back to a 2x system on my second mtb...first to address the chainline issues of the 1x system. Then the gear ratios. Good that I stayed with my 2x on my first mtb.

this was by far the most clear explanation i've seen on the advantages/disadvantages between 1x and 2x. suuuuuuper helpful, thanks!

Great video! I had this very debate when I was deciding which gravel bike to buy. I have increasingly favored 1x drivetrains on my bikes over the last few years. I find 1x stems better suited for off-road riding or casual street riding. The larger jumps are more noticeable and less desirable when you are going faster and trying to find that optimal cadence as you mentioned in your video. It looks like Shimano tried to eliminate that as much as possible and, like you, I am second guessing my decision to go 2x on my gravel bike. I definitely should have studied gear ratios a bit more to better understand how my ride would have been impacted by the ratio gaps. My logic was oversimplified in that I decided that 1x11 would not yield appropriate ratio gaps and that I would need at least a 1x12 to achieve a more appropriate progression of ratios. Perhaps that is somewhat accurate, but after looking at how Shimano does it, I think I would have been just fine because regardless of whether you go 11-40, 11-42, or 11-46, all three have the same progression of 11-13-15-17-19-21-24. Then, along comes Campy with their new Ekar 1x13 gravel groupset. Have you seen it? They offer 3 different cassette options: 9-10-11-12-13-14-16-18-20-23-27-31-36 9-10-11-12-13-14-16-18-21-25-30-36-42 10-11-12-13-14-15-17-19-22-26-32-39-44 Looks like they are taking what Shimano does to the next level with packing the top end of the cassette with very tightly spaced gears. Had I gone with a 1x gravel bike, it more than likely would have been equipped with SRAM Apex 1: 11-13-15-17-19-22-25-28-32-36-42 They start ramping up the progression one cog earlier than Shimano with a larger jump from 19-22. My Specialized Diverge has a Shimano 11-34 configured as such: 11-13-15-17-19-21-23-25-27-30-34 The 48T big ring on my bikes does have me favoring the 17-19-21-23-27 cogs most which are all 2 tooth ratio gaps. Had I gone 1x SRAM with a 42T ring, I would be favoring the 15-17-19-22-25 cogs. My ratios would be very close to the same with the 1x setup except for when I was on the 22 and 25 where the gaps spread just a tad. Not likely a big deal. Sorry this is so long of a comment, but one last thing. After getting my Diverge, I ended up building a super budget gravel bike that I intend to actually ride on the local mountain bike trails. I have it setup with 650B x 47 tubeless tires and a 1x8, 38T ring with an 11-40 cassette. Those are some big jumps (11-13-16-20-24-28-34-40)! The little bit I have ridden it on trails does seem to validate my initial impression that 1x is better suited for slower riding. It is insanely fun and I can't wait to try it out with the recently installed dropper post! Thanks for hopefully reading this and I look forward to more content like this if you decide to make it.

BEST description on the topic....and CLEARLY showed the side-by-side comparison and where the literal differences are. BRAVO!!!!!

You continue to amaze me with your great content. I really enjoy your content and style.

Fantastic video! Thank you so very much for all of that information. I have been wanting to make the shift into 1x for a while, this answered all my questions.

2x all the way, i have 1x mtb, 1x fatbike, 2x road bike, and recently purchased 2x gravel bike, and I'm convinced in a good choice. 1x drivetrain isn't good enough on the tarmac, if the relief is flat and hills, you have to play or shift several cogs to be ok, but on the 2x you just switch from big chairing to the small, and thats all. Another big issu with 1x is the high speed on the tarmac, 40x11 isn't enough for moderate cadence And of course, any cycliste must have some knowledge how 2x chainring works and how to adjust front derailleur, i mean trim position or fully engaged to avoid the chain and derailleur contact

Great video, thanks! Thinking about next gravel bike and will now seriously consider 1x.

Oh my! This is really goooood stuff! Thank you for bringing quantitative insight of the ratios and you deliver it in such a simple way. Awesome!

That was actually a sweet break down, thank you! I actually almost didn’t watch the video but you answered my question perfectly. I wanted perspective on 1x gap jumps. Some cassettes are more easily spaced from say 11-46 and some only have the big jumps at the end. New to biking since my teens and figuring out the best setup for my current options. I was thinking I’d prefer them evenly spaced and now i know I’d actually prefer all the big jumps with the bigger cogs due to how i remember riding long ago. Appreciate my man! Great vid!

That was a very clear and informative explanation. Many thanks!

This is probably my favorite video of yours. I love it!!!!!!

Fantastic video! With this data I am now confident to go for 1x on my first gravel bike. Thank you very much!

yo, this video deserves millions of views. great job and easy to follow. thank you!

You did an amazing job of analyzing and providing an understandable description of the advantages between 1X vs 2X.

Best most useful discussion I've seen on this topic. You did the heavy lifting and then simplified the results for the rest of us. Thanks.

Best presentation I've seen on this topic. The graphs were really helpful. Thanks very much and subscribed!

This was one of the best videos Ive listened to discussing this topic. Got my GEEK fix and confirmed some of the stuff I was thinking as I decide which drivetrain to use on my first gravel bike. Thanks!!

the best video i’ve ever found. finally someone explained quantitively! thanks from nerdy searcher of a bike!))

Absolutely fantastic! Thanks for taking the time to do this.

New sub here and going through your videos. The quality is incredible. I have to say, this is the most informative 1X vs. 2X video I've ever watched!. Everybody else seems to mention the jump in 1X gears, but not explain WHERE those jumps are. I had a 1X Salsa Cutthroat a couple years ago and was never bothered by the gearing. I also came of a mountain bike so that may be why as you mentioned. When I bought my Diverge, it was 2X and I did notice I was only using about half the gears so I decided to order my new bike with GRX 1X and this video confirms I probably won't notice the difference except by not having to deal with adjusting my front mech every now and again. Thank you!

I like the explanation, clear and covers the details in the right sequence. Appreciate the effort put into this script

Wow! Incredible analysis!! Thank you!

The most informative video I found in YT about gear ratios and 1x & 2x comparison. I have decided to go with 1x12 system for my MTB. Thank you!

Best gear ratio video ever. Change chain ring will jump a few gears, this can be annoying at times. Yes, experience with your bike will minimise the pause effect but still not as intuitive compared to 1 by - "not quite the gear I wanted, try the next one". For people new to cycling, this ease of use characteristic of 1 by is a bonus.

And here I am using a 3x9 drivetrain for more gear ratios on my 26' Converted Gravel bike

Great overview and breakdown. Answered my questions very well... many provide what they prefer and "feel" but never the actual facts to this detail. Keep it up - Subscribed!

Great work man. Thanks, that really helped me with my decision.

Great video man. I really enjoyed the graphs and your explanations were super clear. Thanks

Good presentation! Very informative!

this is the best informative video on this topic i have ever come across. Excellent work.

Nice video! I found what i waslooking for. Thanks!

Thanks for geeking out and making this video. I found it very informative. I like the 1x systems for their simplicity. Also I go back to the many times that the chain was rubbing on the front derailleur and driving me nuts. Yeah, it was out of adjustment, but now no worries about that.

thanks for this, have a grx 1x11 set up and was contemplating to go 2x for the jumps, your mathematical prowess made me appreciate what i have, cheers and ride safe

Thanks man. This helped tremendously.

Thanks for the video and sharing your thought’s I went with 2x GRX 810 31/48 up front and XT 11/42 in the rear, for just about anywhere you want to go.

Thanks for providing the detailed analysis! Now I think that maybe I should switch to 1x and 11-50 even for climbing

Yup, total geek out but thankyou! LOTS of effort. Much appreciated.

MTB person here and this video was hugely helpful for me as well. I was quite literally thinking about doing some Matlab coding myself to quantity the difference between 1x, 2x & 3x MTBs too so I'm glad I stumbled upon your video doing the exact same. Definitely worth geeking out to some gear ratios

Finally a mathmatical geometric on the gearing of 1 by vs 2 by. I just ordered my Sram 1 by and have been searching the internet for fear that I may be missing the smaller gaps in the larger gears, and thankfuly you address the answer. I'll be fine! Great job!

I don’t know yet if I’ll go 1x on a new gravel bike, but I sure enjoyed your videos on the subject:)

LOL! "Did I totally geek out and write some Matlab code to sort out gear ratios for gravel bikes? Yes. Yes, I did." Bruce Wayne to Lucius Fox, when Fox opens the garage door to reveal 'The Bat:' "Oh, now you're just showing off!" *

This is next level stuff. But the next next level would be downloading your Strava gpx data and parsing your distribution of speeds and plotting that over your gear ratio plots. You'd want the area with the smallest ratio jumps to coincide with your most common speeds. Next next next level is parsing your power data and generating a bivariate distribution of speeds and power versus time to correlate to hear ratios. You'd have to preprocess to drop the zeroes, like when you're not pedaling and have zero power.

Thank you, that was such a good explanation of both system's ratios. I am definitely in the roadie -> gravel camp and ultimately went with 2x simply because my do-it-all gravel machine does spend a good amount of time on asphalt. However, I'm less hesitant now to consider a 1x conversion for more dedicated gravel time or events. I'd be interested in that shifting discussion next. To run 2x, being comfortable with double-shifts is definitely a thing, though certainly made easier if one is fortunate enough to afford Di2 and run it in its automated mode.

Good work, exactly what I was looking for. I'm going 2x!

This is the analysis I have always thought I wanted to see and you delivered. Thanks for plotting it out! My bike is a 3x9 and I spend most of my time in the middle ring. After seeing this I think 1x would suit my riding over 2x. Thanks!

Great work providing solid data to make a decision. Thanks!

Awesome video. I love the qualitative and quantitative comparisons. Is this a bike video with Matlab, or a Matlab video about bikes? I'm not sure but it's the video I never knew I always wanted! This is super helpful as I compare gravel bikes. Thanks man - keep it up!

Dude this video was brilliant. Thank you.

Your explanation is so enlightening, once you see the picture and you'll get it!

Great video! I love riding, but geeking out with some Matlab on gravel biking is up there ... I can't decide 1x or 2x, so went SRAM Rival/Force on my OPEN U.P. 2x road (10-30t with 46/33t) and 1x gravel (10-36t with 42t). The 10t really makes a difference in top end, full wireless makes it simple to swap (though often just leave 1x).

A year later, and the Campagnolo Ekar group set offers 13 cogs for a 1x system, which pretty much means you can have your cake and eat it too. Depending on which cassette you choose, you can effectively match both the range and the spacing between gears to that of a typical road bike with compact 2x cranks. Of course, you can instead choose to trade a wider spacing for increased range.

This video is fantastic. Very informative and helpful for decision making on which system to go with. Kudos to you

Superb visual discussion of 2x overlap. You didn't miss anything.

Very helpful, thank you!

May be a bad exapmle, but I had only department store bikes in my childhood and last one had that heavy and stupid 3x system, which never felt right - as I was smaller, I just couldn`t make it work, so ended up using middle ring. As I grew taller and heavier I clearly felt, that even the biggest ring on front is not enough for me. While my student years I didn`t really had a chance to ride or even to have a bike, but now I have my gravel 1x bike and I absolutely love it! I`m not riding in big groups to keep up with certain speed or top or bottom gears, so they are not effective - it`s just that good for me - no stupid front deraulier, no need to think about chain angle and in previous season not even once I had my chain dropped or rubbing. Oh, and mtb casette looks awesome as well)

As a complete newbie to cycling this REALLY helped me understand the difference between the drive trains. I'm wanting to start off with an indoor smart trainer, and have been debating if I should get a road bike or gravel bike. The goal ideally would be to get a mtb down the line for the odd occasion I can actually get away for a weekend and explore some trails, BUT THEN I heard about grave bikes and seems like it be a good option. Thx for the great content

awesome explanation, thank you

Beautiful analysis 👏

Ok, you may have done the impossible: you made a video about gear ratios REALLY REALLY interesting! Besides all the diligence in getting your data together, you presented it all in a way that "us common weekend warriors" can understand and appreciate. I went 1X for my gravel, and while I went kinda cheap on the frame, the components are (for me) pretty snazzy with the SRAM Rival etap system. And while I thought wireless was probably wasted on a rider like me, I LOVE IT. Keep up the good work!

Thank you for putting this together, this is awesome data feeding my inner geek. Would you be able to add in comparison for 42t and 44t chainring on the 1x? Seeing a lot of riders do this.

I appreciate how you give facts and data to help your viewers make decisions. I’d be curious to see a video that compares the new 12 speed cassettes to a 2x11 and also how using an oval chainring may impact the overall gear ratios. Keep up the great videos!

I won't give up my dropper post. Integrating into the left lever is clean. I'm not trying to win races, so it was an easy choice for me.

This is great! Thank you!

Thank you! This makes me feel better about my 1x choice. Deore 1x 10 speed 11-46 cassette with 40t crank. I live in the Ozark Highlands about an hour NE of Bentonville, AR in Missouri. It’s quite hilly here!

Thanks, super interesting, helps a lot!

Extensive mathematical analysis. I think you missed 2 things: 1x have more frictional losses, and the actual reduction in range is significant in that you'll end up short on one end or the other- that is especially important for older and heavier riders on the low end. I really don't think jumps between gears is all that important. 2x with 11-40 Cassette is the best all around solution. Good video

I did it enjoy it! Appreciate the work you put in to plot the ratios. I would never have gotten that deep into it. Plus I can't code, so there's that too. But it was informative, so well done. Subscribed.

Now we have 12 speed, smaller jump. I compared a 2x GRX with my sram mullet on an online gear calculator. 2 x11 actually only has around 15 speeds. And the jump between ratios on the 2X is inconsistent. With the 1 x there are 12 speeds and the gear jumps are consistent. There are portions of the 2x where the jump is the same as 1 x. And some of those fine jumps mean going back and forth on the front chainring. The point is, 1x offers many advantages, so the gear jump must really be important to you to not want to go 1x. Even then I don’t know if there is a big gear jump advantage.

I use my gravel bike as a gravel, touring, all-around bike. I have had the luxury of running Shimano Grx in 1X and 2X in a touring and every day situations from roads to gravel and fully loaded touring. I have also had the luxury of pushing the limits with goat links and the like. I'm two going on three years into trying this on bikes. I started with 1X and switched to 2X mostly thinking I was missing out on something. This I know. I like close gear ratios but I hate the maintenance and potential problems of 2X. I LOVE the simplicity of the 1X and really might prefer it due to the simplicity and the realization that you have what you have. The best of both worlds may be having a crank that can accept 1X AND 2X.

Great Video, Thank you so much! I own a 29" 10x2 XC and really like it (compared to my old old 7x3). Now I ordered a Mullet 12x1 Super enduro, and I'm curious what changes I have to aspect. You really brought some light in to the dark and doing it with Matlab is genius! So my new bike (with Lockout) and the 27" in the rear will probably by easyer to for climbing... Manly because of the smaller wheel 😄 But I won't be as fast in the biggest gear... Luckily it's a Bike aimed for descending, or SENDING IT😂 Intuitively I thought it was the other way around, thanks again!

I recently switched from a Trekking/Touring bike with a 3x system, a 2x allowed me to do an easy tradition. Regarding the use of more of the gears in the 2x system: depending on the terrain that you drive on you can make more of the gears that you go on I think. I noticed when cycling in snow and mud that more finer gear ratios help me to cycle faster while still having easy control over my bike when a to high gear would be simple to much maintain speed in.

9:45 unless you are using electronic shifting… then you can use both chainrings as you shift up and down

Up until very recently, i completely avoided 1x bikes, as it seemed like a poor choice for range and efficiency, but now that i keep seeing actual data about it, doesn't seem like a bad deal. Now i have this exact 46-30 and 11-34 on my bike, but having a 40T chainring paired with an 11-46 would be pretty similar in climbing gears, and only slightly slower in the faster gears (something i'd probably not miss much).

amazing video mate! Keep up the good work!

many thanks for this! for me 1x set up if you are doing bikepacking, recreational rides which is enough...2x if you gravel race and definitely road cycling..

Very thorough discussion between 1x vs 2x. Thanks. I was interested in getting a 1x but I ended up getting a 2x simply because it I got tired of waiting and grabbed the first one available in my size which was a 2x. LOL. Btw, I got the same Diverge Sport with the black color and blueish. Such a fun bike!

Geek away brother. Very helpful, even in 2022.

Great video! Subscribed.

great detail on gear ratios. one note (and possible con) for 1X is frictional losses. narrow-wide chainrings and tight chain articulations (10t cog) result in small power losses compared to 2X. To recreational riders just trying to have fun .. not a big deal. but to the competitor, especially one entered in a fast event like SBT Gravel, this could be worth considering.

After I had my old mountainbike serviced, I noticed that while speeding up with the front on the smaller wheel, it didn't grab the chain and I almost died on a road, because I couldn't get my bike going. Ever since I used the big blade on the front and learnt to change only the back gear. Now I'm looking for a new bike and I want to buy a gravelbike as under the circumstances where I drive here in Thailand (rough and smooth roads, sand, and gravel on the road) I found a lot information about anything related to gravelbikes (and mountainbikes). And given the experience I had and your video, the choice is easy: I go for the 1x drivetrain. Last sunday I was in a shop which only had mountainbikes or racebikes, the seller was showing the 1x drivetrain bikes as the latest innovation. I thought it was ridiculous, but now I learnt that this is really what I want. Thanks for helping me decide!

For me the pros at 2x are simple: Better for the chain and fast downshifting is soo much more comfortable ...

Hey Man! Awesome video. For me, it was essentially a question of availability when upgrading from my rather cheap city (?) bike I was riding since I was 13. I ended up with a 1*11 - for me the big upgrade came in weight savings - I am still mostly cycling on roads, but the lower weight made the difference to me. Keep up the great work - you explained it really well, greetings from Germany!!

this is a fantastic and well-presented video. great job! i ride road and gravel, probably more road and i absolutely do not like 2x. all of the your 'pros' for 1x were bang-on, but one thing you didn't mention was noise. i have spent way too much time fine-tuning FDs to eliminate chain noise and i just can't seem to ever get away from it. a properly-setup and lubricated 1x drivetrain is a silent and smooth system that from a purely tactile perspective, is enough for me to only use 1x. also, kudos for mentioning the overlapping gear ratios in 2x - to me, this is wasteful. ;) LOL. i love the GRX 810 components but i am now running a SRAM Rival AXS eTap 1x12 setup with a 42T chainring and a 10-44 XPLR cassette on my Aspero, and it has so much range. the only change i may make, as i get faster, is move up to a 44T chainring. i really notice the smaller spacing in the 12-speed cassette vs the 11-speed 10-42 i used to use with my GRX 810 stuff. it's perfect, for me.

Great video! I was waiting for the Grail 2x for so long and was scared of losing gears. After this video, Grail 1x was in stock so I bought it just now! Canyon should send you some $$ :) Thank you so much for the video.

hello i have 40t chainring and 11-42 cassete as mentioned. For me it performs really great. But my previous bike had 3x7 acera. So big uprgrade for me 😁

Thank you that was really informative. I'm thinking about replacing my Giant Talon mtb with a Kona Libre AL. This video was helpful in explaining some of the differences I might expect.

I just got a bike with a 1x (Surly Ghost Grappler) and that was my main concern. It's my first 1x bike and I thought that would be some sacrifice. But what I found is the top gear goes faster than I can ever actually maintain unless I'm going downhill anyway. To me the only time that speed would matter is in a race, which I'm not doing. On the low end it can't go much lower anyway because that front chainring is pretty small. Maybe I could go a bit smaller, I'm not sure. I was also skeptical about shifting, as it seemed like it would have those problems you mentioned with e.g. using the large chainring on the large cogs. And I've had bikes that just plain (with age) don't shift reliably in the largest or smallest cogs. I don't know what magic allows that to work well but it does, at least so far. If it continues to work well I don't see any reason, for me, to ever use a 2x again. I love having fewer parts! But again I'm no racer.

Really well explained in this video! I agree with the pros and cons you've described and for me, roadie to gravel, I haven't missed the tighter jumps going to my 1x gravel bike but I'm not racing and haven't done very long distance gravel rides. Do you think another con of going 1x would be much faster wear of the chain, chainring, and the cassette? Hypothetically the chain line is more cross-chained a lot more of the time compared to 2x. What do you think? Could this wear be quantified in modeling somehow?

Nice analysis and presentation. Back in 2018, I considered a 1x bike but ended up getting the Diverge Sport with its 2x system. I had recently moved from a flat part of the country to terrain that had a lot of hills. Not being an experienced climber, I wasn’t comfortable giving up the wider range of gears or smaller incremental jumps the 2x offered. If most 1x designs are similar to the one you analyzed, I would have seen those larger increments on the hill climbing gears so I’m glad I didn’t go that route. Although now that I have a few years of experience climbing hill under my belt, I would still consider a 1x system in the future. Thanks for helping me understand more about them. Good video! Also, I just bought headset spacers for my Diverge from your shop. Thanks for the quick delivery, cool sticker and friendly note you included. The sticker will be perfect to cover up a ding on my paddle board.

Coming from a 3BY, I didn't want to take a chance with 1BY. It's not like for the same price model, you have both options. The Aluminium version with 11 gears in the back came with a 1BY only. With the $800 price difference, I could have had the Aluminium frame at 1 lb heavier with carbon wheels at 2 lbs lighter. Aluminium would have given me so much room to add clamping accessories, bike stand, ease of packing. But, I am happy with the carbon frame bike. You nailed it about max speed limitation to 25 Vs 29. I wanted my diverge to be more like road bike... so I went with 2BY and stiffest spring.. once I have a 32mm tire, it's even closer to Roubaix. The larger front chain rings of Roubaix would have made it harder for me to climb anyways. I wish bike companies provide such customisation options.

Thank you for geeking out on this one - very informative stuff and food for thought. I am a newbie and recently got a Diverge E5 Comp and I am really enjoying the GRX 1x, although I sometimes find myself shifting for that last elusive gear at higher speed, but its really not a problem 95 pct of the time. I love how calm, steady and solid it just feels.

This video confirms what I did with Excel before finding this site, plotting gear ratios and wondering whether I should go one-by or two-by. Our plots match exactly. However, I'd reached a different conclusion - I thought I'd want tighter gear increments on the low end, not so much on the high end of the gear ratios. For example, when I'm slogging my way up a hill in say 3rd gear the last thing I need is a big jump to 4th gear, etc. But I could be wrong (overly worried) there. Great videos you have. I just bought the same model you have yesterday before I'd ever seen this site and in large part because of the concern about gear ratio tightness, but now thinking of taking it back and paying up for an Expert (1x) version because of all the other features it has.

It's worth remembering for people that live in lumpy countries like Scotland you are nearly always going up or down hills so it's nice having down hill gears and uphill gears and the fine gears are nice to have the most nice gear for a particular slope