1x10 drivetrain bikepacking in colorado?

[dream4est]

I had at least .5%
I also think I have some cassette wear in low gears possibly, or Sram just sucks. If it is wear I am thinking medium cage derailleurs are tough on these drivetrains as chainwrap becomes an issue in small rear cogs. I ordered a long cage type 2 derailleur and if I go 11/42 cassette again its gonna be an 11/36 XT with a 42 tooth cog from One Up or Wolftooth.

[phil_rad]

Don't know if this is available in the US; maybe another alternative for 1x10 use. I haven't used it, although a buddy of mine has with good results in the Alps.

http://www.hopetech.com/products/drivetrain/40t-rex/

[dream4est]

Well I got the following:
Long cage Sram x9 type 2 rear mech
One Up 42 tooth cog and 16t cog.
XT cassette 11-36
KMC 10.93 chain

Existing 30t Race Face narrow wide chainring.

The results are that the new setup works well, shifts well, but still has some noise backpedaling in 11 and 13. No noise really riding forward and backpedal doesnt derail chain chain just catches on teeth a little or rube the outside of the next biggest cog. My opinion is that it is due to the chainline and I cant fix it but will have to live with it.

The shifting is way better than the E13 cog. No long b screw needed. The 16t works. Nice thing is that the cogs work with both Sram and Shimano cassettes.

The E13 42 tooth cog was bad but the Sram cassette was fine. I have the same action in 11 and 13 tooth cogs I had on the Shimano Cassette. Take the chain off and cassette freewheels fine by itself. So unless I alter the chainline thats what I get- but moving the chainline outwards would probably ruin the good shifting/backpedaling in the big cogs (36-42) and maybe even wear the 42t cog too quickly.

The long cage was a must for my bike. Med cage meant too slack a chain in small cogs and a 30t chainring. I would have had to use a 34t minimum to make a med cage work. Or buy a hardtail- chain growth happens with a fully the med cage gets locked out.
These conversions are all custom jobbers so we will see what happens. Maybe the whole thing will fix itself after riding and drivetrain sync happens.

If I cant get good results I am going 11 speed. Meaning when I change the chain next if the One Up 42t cog skips I am done experimenting.

[Filterlessjoe]

Well I got the following:
Long cage Sram x9 type 2 rear mech
One Up 42 tooth cog and 16t cog.
XT cassette 11-36
KMZ 10.93 chain

Existing 30t Race Face narrow wide chainring.

The results are that the new setup works well, shifts well, but still has some noise backpedaling in 11 and 13. No noise really riding forward and backpedal doesnt derail chain chain just catches on teeth a little or rube the outside of the next biggest cog. My opinion is that it is due to the chainline and I cant fix it but will have to live with it.

The shifting is way better than the E13 cog. No long b screw needed. The 16t works. Nice thing is that the cogs work with both Sram and Shimano cassettes.

The E13 42 tooth cog was bad but the Sram cassette was fine. I have the same action in 11 and 13 tooth cogs I had on the Shimano Cassette. Take the chain off and cassette freewheels fine by itself. So unless I alter the chainline thats what I get- but moving the chainline outwards would probably ruin the good shifting/backpedaling in the big cogs (36-42) and maybe even wear the 42t cog too quickly.

The long cage was a must for my bike. Med cage meant too slack a chain in small cogs and a 30t chainring. I would have had to use a 34t minimum to make a med cage work. Or buy a hardtail- chain growth happens with a fully the med cage gets locked out.
These conversions are all custom jobbers so we will see what happens. Maybe the whole thing will fix itself after riding and drivetrain sync happens.

If I cant get good results I am going 11 speed. Meaning when I change the chain next if the One Up 42t cog skips I am done experimenting.

Thanks for the update. I am LOVING 1x and there is no way I'll be able to afford 11s in this decade at least so I'm pretty much counting on that one up of yours to work. I'll probably get one myself next spring.

[dream4est]

E13 is going to send me a new 42t cog. They said the new models are better with updates like shifting improvement and  they clear all hub bodies (my straight pull dt swiss 240 needed a spacer). And they are going to look at my CTR cog for R+D as to why it failed after 1 chain replaced at .5% wear.

So thats nice of them. Sounds like they are working hard on their 1x stuff, cogs and chainrings.

I rode the 1x10 with One Up 42 and 16 tooth cogs today. Works perfect. I can only tell the 16t is not a Shimano a little bit. Its getting better each shift though. The 42t also, getting better each shift.

[Filterlessjoe]

That's customer service for you

[dream4est]

One thing to consider on the 1x10 conversion is that the 30t chainrings in 104mm BCD are moved over a bit to clear the bolts. I may have to revert to the 32t or bigger chainrings that run straight on the middle of a 3x9 to fix my chainline issue in 11 and 13t rear cogs.

[Filterlessjoe]

That makes sense. I run a 32 so I don't think I need to worry about it. I haven't noticed any shifting issues as of yet.

[dream4est]

Well I got a brand new 30t and my drivetrain still rubs and catches a bit backpedaling in 11 and 13t. I spaced the old 30t cog over 2-3mm running it flipped (48mm chainline) and I tried a 3x9 middle chainring 32t (50-51mm chainline in theory should have stopped the catching) and they both did the same thing? They all shift perfectly and all backpedal fine in gears 1-8.

I tried another wheel. Redid hangar with park tool. Repressed bb. Whole drivetrain is new. I think its possibly my internally routed cable setup but shop does not. So I am gonna have them put on a full housing and run it externally and see if that does anything.

So it looks like the CTR only wore out my chain and e13 42t cog. But I still have the nagging backpedal issue. Its not like I actually backpedal all that much anyway and barely ever in 11 and 13 but I still would like to find out what is doing it.

[Kevinscamps]

I never understand 1x10 gear ratios. Biking in colorado I pretty much only use the bottom two and the top two gears.

On the topic of the CT. Do Not "Ride" the section from breck to copper. Total waste of time. An all day miserable hike a bike for a 15 minute descent. Of the 330 miles of the CT I have toured (NOT) raced, there is no way that 50% of the time was hike a bike. Minus of course the 10 mile range which was an entire day of cold rain, sleet, and 90% HAB.   I hear the sections further west have more HAB

[Kevinscamps]

I have never understood 1x10 gear ratios. Biking in colorado I pretty much only use the bottom two and the top two gears.

On the topic of the CT. Do Not "Ride" the section from breck to copper. Total waste of time. An all day miserable hike a bike for a 15 minute descent. Of the 330 miles of the CT I have toured (NOT) raced, there is no way that 50% of the time was hike a bike. Minus of course the 10 mile range which was an entire day of cold rain, sleet, and 90% HAB.   I hear the sections further west have more HAB.

[THE LONG RANGER]

Yeah, it gets more HAB the farther west you go, but the start to Kenosha is pretty rideable, as are large parts after that before 10 mile, then after Camp Hale to Monarch, and then the huge La Garita Wilderness detour. Time-wise, a good estimate is that half your time will be hiking it. 10 Mile is stupid fun. Good views!

[Yagi]

For me, in Colorado especially, to love bikepacking is to hike-a-bike.

This is why I bikepack... keeps the riff-raff out, so to speak.

This did not come overnight, and I can't wait to HAB on the CT again.  Sick, I know. 

[cjdunn]

I'm running a Sram X01 1X11 (10-42) with a 28t North Shore Billet chainring on my 2014 Salsa Horesthief.  I had a stock 32t chainring first and it was too much for bikepacking so at the suggestion of Kurt Refsnider I went to the 28t and it is the perfect combination.  I figured if Kurt rides a 28t on the same bike I had no business thinking I ought to stick with the 32t chainring.  The lowest gear is exactly the same as a 24X36.  My top pedaling speed is about 25mph in the 28X10 gear. I'm not a big fan of Sram but everything is working well.  Fingers crossed.

[joeydurango]

For me, in Colorado especially, to love bikepacking is to hike-a-bike... I can't wait to HAB on the CT again.  Sick, I know. 

Absolutely agreed.  HAB is just part of it, and not necessarily a bad part!  I, for one, love 10 Mile... especially in the middle of the night.

[rick miller]

Ditto, and I would personally much rather be pushing 40 lbs. Instead of carrying it on my back like those poor thru-hikers!

[JReeves]

Not only have people tried it, but they've done it - and won it, speaking of the CTR - on SS.  The CT is a tough trail but you're going to walk a lot regardless of your setup, and some people are just that into the SS.

Personally, I love riding single and have spent almost 100% of my time on SS over the last seven years, but when it comes to a big, mountainous bikepacking trip, I don't see any reason to make myself walk even more than I would with a few gears - and I actually enjoy hike-a-bike!

There are some of us who were naive enough to give it a go SS...  Lesson learned.  Joey can attest to it's difficulty, as well as my overconfidence two years back... hahaha
Having done some pretty big trips on the 1x10, I would feel more than comfortable doing it on 1x10 but I would probably opt for a 30t front ring with 12/36 in back. 

[dream4est]

I got a new bottom bracket- Sram GXP Pressfit92. My chainline was off about 2-3mm inbound in the CTR, the new BB seems to be what I needed after Tour Divide as I broke the wave washer taking off the cranks and the first BB was not installed correctly IMO. So I am hoping to have a normal running bike after AZT and just replace the chain and no problems. We will see. Visually the chainline is way better and my cranks are now centered against chainstays.


Edit- the reason I have been searching for an answer is after CTR my bike not only couldnt run the 42t on a hill it sounded horrible in 11 and 13t rear cogs. Like destroyed. Day 1 in the rain the new drivetrain sounded just like that in 11t. So now I know it was chainline. I have serious gouge marks on the inside of about 5-6 teeth on the old 30t Race Face NW chainring. So in small gears out back I had some serious cross chain issues it seems.

[Danish]

+1 for the 1x10.

I run a 32T WolfTooth narrow-wide direct mount ring with Shimano XT 11-36+OneUp42 and switched out the 15t cog for the 16t that now comes standard.  I have used it all over Montana for 100mile races and loaded bike packing and never wished I had 2x.

[rick miller]

Interesting to hear your experience with the E13, Dream4est.  I rode the AZT 300 this year 32x12/36 with a x7 rd on a ht ti 29er, which worked pretty well, but I decided I wanted a lower gear for the CTR, so I ordered a Oneup 40t (with the included 16).  Rode that setup for a few weeks prior to the CTR, including a couple multidayers, and the CTR and have no noticeable wear.  Also, the function has been nearly flawless, requiring only minor barrel adjustment during the race.  The gearing worked ok, but in hindsight I think a 30, or even a 28 chainring would be ok for the CTR as there isn't much flat ground for spinning out.  Like Joeyd, I ride mostly ss and have adapted that syle to geared bikepacking - a bit more walking and lots of low cadence standing/mashing, which reduces many overuse physical issues.  So 1x might not be or everyone but it seems to work well for me.

1/19/2015 Update:

After about 1500 miles on my OneUp 40T cog, I had about 5/16" chain stretch and decided to install a new one (Sram 1070), whereupon I immediately got skipping on the 40T while mashing. Upon inquiry, OneUp customer service informed me that "1500 miles is an acceptable mileage for a cog to wear out" (the other cogs on the cassette have about 5x the mileage and no issues). They also advised me to replace the cog, so I ordered an new one... from Wolf Tooth.  Upon further research, it appears that OneUp cogs are aluminum and Wolf Tooth are steel.

Edit:  Wolf Tooth cogs may be aluminum also, can't tell for sure from their website.