1x vs 2x - Is This The Future Of Road Bike Groupsets?

Does a 1x road bike actually work in the real world and is this the next disc brake debate? To find out, we’ve pitted 1x vs 2x in a road bike test to see the pros and cons of switching your road bike to 1x. With more pro cyclists using 1x drivetrains is now the right time to ditch the front derailleur?

Jamie thinks that we might see a lot more 1x road bikes in the future but Tom isn't so sure...who's side are you on? Team 1x or team 2x? Let us know in the comments section below...

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[mctrials]

36/28 isn't going to cut it for most people who live in hilly areas. Plenty of people around here are grinding up climbs on 34/34 or 34/36. 36/28 is a brutal gear to be climbing in for a lot of people.

[grvl]

It's all about terrain, speed range and personal preference. I can operate at low and high cadence, live in the Netherlands (no climbs at all, except the occasional 30-ish second bridge climb...), so I always move between 26 and 38 km an hour... One by would be fine for me, and a lot of other Dutchies who don't take their bike to other countries...

[captainbungee]

105 2x all the way for me. 50/34 front and 11-28 rear with road wheels & tyres; 11-36 on the spare wheels with 38mm tyres. Literally takes 2 mins to swap over. No chain length issues switching over. Long-cage RD works fine without an extender.

[Daniel-yfiy]

I’ve recently gotten back into cycling and bought a Kona Rove DL with a 1x setup and have really enjoyed it. I even recently rode in a century on it. I really like the simplicity and for my purposes it works fine.

[tom_er]

Weirdly Sram is pushing 1x being the company that isn't able to make a reliable front derailleur that doesn't drop the chain regularly.

[jabsba-yrik]

I'm using road bike 1x 50T 11t-46t cassette. It's cleaner, less part to maintain, and i had climb any uphill in my locality without a problem so far. As a casual rider I don't have any reason to go for 2x

[maximkrivov]

I switched to 1x. Most underrated advantage is actually bigger jumps. I find I change gears less and more purposefully. So when I change a gear I actually feel a difference and it's a natural jump. Where as on the normal 2x road jumps you were constantly changing trying to find the perfect gear and the dilemma of shifting down on the front and jumping up on the back or now wait lets switch back on the front then back down on the back. Now I just feel free and less anxious if I am in the right gear. Nothing wrong with not pedaling at a perfect 90rpm 100% of the time.

[gressshap]

Love my 1x. 46T front, eagle 10-52 rear. No longer need to double shift because the ratio are so close together or having to live with that horrendous front shifting! Each to their own but for me…Riding road is blissful once more 👍

[petrilatva-rasku]

I'd definitely go for 3x if such were available. You get everything: short gearing, long gearing and small gaps between gears. Especially sub-1:1 gearing is needed on long steep ascents by not-so-fit riders.

[davidkendall]

I've got 1x on my Nukeproof gravel bike and 2x on my out-of-commission Allez. Now that I'm riding the gravel bike pretty much everywhere, I definitely miss being able to hit the perfect ratio on long road rides, especially as I start to get tired. That said, I love the simplicity of the 1x for single track and rough stuff where shifting under load happens more regularly. Plus, using the left brifter to control the dropper post instead of a derailleur is awesome.

[kimwarner]

All my bikes are 1x and I've never dropped a chain. It's cheaper, easier to maintain, and makes the bike look cleaner. Lastest build is ultegra di2 1x

[BrianMcDonald]

I have given 1x a try in the past few months, and I have to admit it is nice to just shift up and down and not have to worry or think about when I need to be shifting my front derailleur. My gravel bike build has a mullet setup with a 48t chainring and a 10-52 in the back. There are definitely cadence implications but they don't affect me. It feels similar to how I felt with my old 10 speed bike as far as the shifts go, and I got on fine with 10 speed for years so I don't feel like I'm having any drop in performance. The 1x experience has me thinking of doing a XPLR 1x setup for road bike use since a 48t/10-44t would give me the same gearing range as a 48/35t 10-33 setup.

One disadvantage of 1x (electronic at least) is that when you forget to charge your battery, you aren't able to just swap your battery from the front to hold you over.

[jonburnell]

With the hills around me, with a 1x, you'll either have no knees after a month or giant gaps between ratios. For me, 2x wins hands down.

[ploegdbq]

1x = fewer parts, cheaper to manufacture and assemble, you don't need to go any farther to know why the bike brands are pushing it.

I figure that 2x gives you only two or three more usable gears than the same speed-number 1x system, but generally those are the usable gears you really want to have (either for pushing faster or getting bailed out on a climb).

[junaid]

If we look at it purely from the gear ratio point of view, a 1x is as good as riding 2x 8/9 speed.

It’s not about the over lapping gears, but the smaller jumps that matters, at least for me. I don’t race but I love long endurance rides. A 2x helps me maintain my cadence without abruptly jumping from a too hard to a too easy gear and this is true both when climbing or just cruising in the flats.

[struancochrane]

Living in Dorset, I am not strong enough to get away from my 52-36 11-34. The punchy sharp hill terrain means I need a wide spread, especially at the low end. Especially as most downhills aren't that long and have a gravelly T junction at the bottom.😂

[dvoob]

I've found 44t with a 10-36 is the sweet spot for road 1x. Swap the cassette for 10-44 and you have great gravel gearing without swapping anything else.

[azmiosman]

I have been using 1x setup since 2016. I noticed that I had clear advantage over my friend everytime he shifted from big to small chainring and small to big chainring. Two obvious things happened to him at that particular moment, first he lost time due to the shifting. Secondly, his gear ratio jump was bigger than mine.

[tomtiehatten]

I switched to 1x three years ago when I bought a Rose Backroad and I'm nog going back to 2x. For most non professional riders 1x gives everything you need. First I used a smaller cassette (11-32) for the mostly flat rides in my surroundings and a 11-42 cassette for more hilly rides but I found out that with a 42 or 44 ring in front a 11-42 works fine, even on rides in my flat surroundings. I don't miss the smaller gaps in the bigger gears. Made also a switch to a derailleur cage by Garbaruk so I can even go bigger in the rear (up to 51). That gives me all that I need.

[KidFury]

IMO... 2x will never die on long lumpy road, rides, stages and road specific grand fondos. You just need the full range. However, flat stages, TTs, hill climbs, crits, and pure gravel might all go the way of 1x very soon.