Best Gearing for Gravel? 1x? 2x? Sub-Compact?

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Gearing options for gravel bikes, more rack questions, and how do you pronounce Velo-Orange?

Sunrace 11-50 Casette:

Take-A-Look Mirror

[masondanner]

This is great Russ. Cannot say enough about low gearing. I run a triple as it's pretty much the only way to get a 17 inch gear and still have enough top end to bomb descents. Big climbs in the Cascades are my favorite and my power meter taught me to get over the aesthetics of granny gear pretty quick and I love spinning past gravel racers suffering under the heavy yoke of 1:1 gear ratios. Plus, in bad moments like a bonk climbing at mile 100 this weekend, I just threw it in granny and ate and drank and did recovery watts instead of burying myself deeper in the hole. Too bad the "industry" thinks everyone is Ted King.

[industryrule-]

Just got my Journeyman setup with GRX 46/30 and 11-40 XT cassette. Goes a bit slow, but really easy on steep (10%+) climbs!

[AdventuresWithDaniel]

I'm glad you're helping bring awareness to touring and riding bikes for the fun and adventure aspects instead of just for speed and competition.

[jeffbrunton]

My 1961 CX bike has a 46/30 crankset from that era. And a freewheel with a max of 30.

58 years later and we are back to reinventing sub compacts on gravel bikes.

[antoniocruz]

I'm glad I kept my 3X10 mountain bike. It's super versatile, going up 20% hills on the trails or road touring with large gears and being able to keep close to my best candace. The chain also lasts very long with little crossover. Also, the front gears need little maintenance since for every 20 times I change the back gears, I only changed the front once. Sometimes the original ideas are the best. Like my rear rack, with the arrival of bikepacking I never took the rear rack off, it is useful for large or small panniers, a backpack or just a wind breaker, so useful.

[Squidkidde]

Retrogrouch 9 speed triples forever! (or at least until I can't get parts anymore). 46/36/24 with an 11-32 cassette for loaded touring. 50/40/30 with a 12-30 cassette for rando/sport touring. Ok, and a 1 X 9 for commuting simplicity.

[billydcunningham]

Rei co-op adv 3:2, 650b x 50 . 10spd, 11x36, 28 &44 crank.. changed to shamano 9032, 22 32 40, x180mm crank. 5ft8.5 " 78 yrs old . Love it. Don't compete, with shorter cranks. Years past, spent 7 days and nights riding in rain, in southern b.c.canada. had low grade prostrate infection & internal yeast infection. Was running 34 cassette & mountain taimer quad crank. 48, 36, 38, 18. Learned my lesson !! I can coast down 👇 without any effort, going up, takes efficient effort. I haven't pushed, yet. Saved my life!!! Taken routes, many would not dare. P.s. I live to climb, it's keeping me alive 😂💪!!!! Great program !! Don't be afraid to think & and try outside the box

[dfermette]

Mountain 22/36 does just right when riding loaded. Touring is usually around 18-20 kmh

[GasmanA]

Just extended the GRX 800 RD with a 11-46 cassette and a GRX 48/31 thats 18.4 gear inch to 120….all it needed was a wolf lint! I think it will fit a 11-51 and know someone running just that in the Di2 version, thats 16.8 GI on the low side!!

[patrickermer]

I switched to a MTB 44/28 and 11/34 cassette and I love it.

[julmeissonnier]

I never understood the logic of getting rid of one small alloy chainring (like 30 or 28 or 26) in front and then replacing it with 3 or 4 huge (36+) cogs in the rear and ending up with a cassette that either weighs more than my entire TA crankset and/or costs more than my entire drive train and then have chains that last 2000KM and chainrings and cassettes that are dead after 6000Km... I know someone that left for a long touring trip with a shiny new 1x12, he was a bit shocked that chains lasted about two weeks and after 6 weeks his entire drive train was dead (32T chainring and 11-50 cassette) his drive train budget was bigger than his food budget... He stopped and changed the whole thing back to 3x9... with 3x8, 3x9 you can get chains that last 6, 000Km and a drivetrain that lasts 20 or 30, 000Km, but who cares most people get a new bike way before that anyways....

[hansolo]

I am converting my 25yrs old mountain bike to an ebike. This vid really help with gearing, Thank you.

[sheilastallard]

Like the graphs. You are right...you and Henry Wildberry show that there is other types of cycling. GCN do's a good show for the racing side. But I would still use the brommie for touring around England. Thank you.

[Blueparradiddle]

Russ, thanks for such a lot of work explaining about gears, very helpful.
Last year I did the JOGLE in the UK with a fully loaded steel bike and my 210 lbs of supreme fitness, ha !!! (this went down to 196 lbs over the 12 days it took!), sorry, I digress- I started off with the usual 22/32/44T front rings and 11-34T rear cassette. I never used the 44T front ring, so I am off to ride in Wales in a few weeks time (National Cycle Route 8) and have taken off the 44T, not to save any weight or aesthetics etc, I just know I don't need it.
I am back at 210 lbs due to lock down and all the nice Barbie weather we are having here !. I have been training- 3 rides a week, just turned 60 and upped my daily prayers for good luck on the next trip.
Take care all out there, stay safe because if where you live is like here in the UK, all the nutters are back at work in their big vans and of course they are not one bit bothered about you or me on our bikes. Cheers. Mike (UK)

[chrislowe]

IMO the big problem is all the 11 tooth cassettes out there. With many 11-XX cassettes your first 2-4 gears are so big as to be useless to the average rider except on downhills. I really wish the industry would go back to offering 13 and 14 tooth end cogs for all us bikepackers and non-wannabe racers. I cobbled together a 14-36 10 speed cassette and it was great. Tightly spaced gears and I was able to use all my cogs. Sure, this meant I'd spin out on long descents but A) Going 30+mph on a gravel descent in the middle of nowhere when you're by yourself is perhaps not the smartest thing to do and B) If a downhill is long/steep enough to allow those speeds that probably means I just climbed up something equally long and steep and now want a break!

It would be great to see someone offer a 14-46 cassette for touring. For example: 14, 16, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 34, 38, 42, 46. You have tight 2 tooth jumps at the top end, 3 tooth jumps in the middle and only 4 tooth jumps in the low climbing gears. Seems a lot nicer than the 6 or even 8 tooth gaps you see at the low end of some cassettes these days. The 6 tooth jump from the 36 to the 42 and the 8 tooth jump from the 42 to the 50 are the worse parts of my 11-50 1x drivetrain. I'd happily give up some top end speed for tighter spacing at the low end.

[juanfersan]

48/32 and a 11/34 cassette works for me 99% of situations

[mikedeal]

Last year 32 11-42 worked great on my Big Honzo, did 6 overnighters on this setup. Rode up all the hills and fast enough with + tires on the flats. Wouldn't mind making it a 10-42.


Picked up a Kona Rove LTD a couple months ago, it's a 40 10-42 and will be my more paved gravel bikepacker. Haven't bikepacked with it yet but I will be getting a 36 or 34 to switch out the 40 for loaded hilly trips.


I am pretty darn happy with the 1X setup, especially in mostly trail situations on the Big Honzo. I could go either way for gravel/paved situations, 1X or 2X, mostly I liked the Rove LTD and it came with Force so why not give'r a try and I gotta say the Force group is pretty sweet, including the brakes, and mated with the Rove LTD frame it's a Hell of a good ride. Looking forward to a loaded overnighter on it.


Also I'm not racing when I am backpacking so if I spin out my big gear on a downhill I coast and have yet to think, darn it I need to go faster on this downhill.

[LindyLooo]

I have a SRAM Rival 1x 11-42t because we predominantly ride paved, occasionally gravel, rarely mountainous. We are flat here in Texas. But we love the comfort level of a gravel bike

[zirc]

Keeping it simple when loaded... just use a triple crank.... and will get the low range without the need to bother looking trendy with the one by or a two by with a giant being a total retro grouch.... I am still using my 1992 Deore Xt triple crank....and love it!

[mikeymon]

Just built a carbon mt. bike "monstercross" bikepacker using 27.5 wheels. 36-26 with 10-42 cassette 11 speed gives 17-97 gear inches- that'll do!