2x10 Group set

[2DDav]

So, been looking at a couple of new full suspension bikes (Man maths + the N+1 rule and all that), and noticed there seems to be a trend with the 2x10 groupsets rather than the more traditional 3x9/10. Anyone have any real experience with this? Getting a test ride round the street is one thing, but getting one out for a few hours is another thing, some what dubious at spending £2k on a bike without knowing the pro's & cons.

[Rolls]

Will give you pretty much the same range of gears.
Slightly lighter i'd have thought.

[Mr Gearchange]

I've got 2x10 on my bike.
I've not found it to be wanting - either riding up or down mountains.

[ecsrobin]

I've got 2x10 on my giant, pretty much the standard these days. Although I find I'm only using 1x10 so think I'll drop from 36T to 32T and ditch the small ring and derailuer.

[paddy27]

Mr Gearchange said:

I've got 2x10 on my bike.
I've not found it to be wanting - either riding up or down mountains.

Same here. been using 2x10 for last couple of months and found its better. Same range of gears.

[Gren]

Similar range - maybe loose 1 or so at either extreme. Fewer overlap ratios and slightly better clearance.

Weight difference will only be slightly better - 100g or so max for 1 ring.

[TheInternet]

Rolls said:

Slightly lighter i'd have thought.

The weight of a chainring, 40g or so?

[matt-ITR]

2 x 10 is so 2012!
1 x 11 is where it is at now

[TwistingMyMelon]

If its anything like a road bike, you will get all the gears you "need", there will just be bigger gaps between them. This can be a bit of a pita sometimes with a road bike, but on a MTB, it wouldn't be too noticeable

[Watchman]

I've got 2x10 but I reckon I could recalc the chainring and go 1x10 easily. In fact, I can't understand why we need such small increments in gearing. The range afforded by a 1x10 could cover all eventualities.

[Rolls]

Its more to do with what cadence you want to sit at though..
Wider range > more options after all!

[Watchman]

On the road, that's true I guess, although I still wonder whether the benefits afforded to "cadence" are outweighed by simplicity and weight loss.

On a MTB, I can see them all being single chainrings within the next couple of generations of bikes.

[yellowjack]

It's just the industry sorting it's act out, I think.

My earliest memory of cycling, as with most children, was of riding a 'single speed'. Then I graduated to Grifters and Choppers with 3 speed Sturmey Archer hub gears. My first 'racer' was a '1x5' - or a 'five speed' as we called them

Ever since then, the race has been on to squeeze more and more gears onto a bike, with first double (or 'ten speed'), then triple chainsets, choices between 'standard' and 'compact', etc. Then the road cycling world woke up to the folly of a triple for anything but Alpine touring. Mountain biking is now going the same way, realising that triples are overly complex and heavy, with little real benefit in extra ratios.

My MTB is old and pretty 'low end' - it is a '3x8' and can be a pain, to be honest. I can see me being more than happy with a '2x10' next time I buy a MTB, provided that I don't loose the biggest and smallest gears. I don't tend to use all of the 'in betweenies' anyway, as I'll change 2 or 3 gears at a time to find the one I want.

The road side of things puzzles me too - I'm not even sure that the whole 11 speed cassette thing is in the riders interest. I suspect it's got more to do with selling 'newer, shinier, more expensive' toys, yet the downside of it appears to be reduced reliability and increased likelihood of chain failure every time they build a narrower chain to fit the more closely spaced gears.

[daddy cool]

Moved from 3x9 to 2x10 when I got my Boardman F/S a couple of years back - I was instantly converted. I never used the big ring anyway (except on road) and then of the two remaining rings found the granny ring too small.
I love the fact I have less options now (in a perverse way) - big ring for flat or downhill, small ring for hills, and then go up and down the cassette as required.
If it wasn't such a big outlay, I'd almost consider going 1x11 as mentioned above.

[neenaw]

I bought my Epic with 2x10 gearing.
It worked pretty well but no matter how it was adjusted the chain would regularly catch on the front mech which really irritated me. I splashed out on an XX1 1x11 groupset and it's about the best upgrade I've made on a bike.
I'm now a confirmed front mech hater and have also switched my CX bike to a 1x10 set up as well.
I've never been short of gears on either bike and don't miss the double chain set at all.

[anonymous-user]

I've run 2x10 on my mtb since I built it, fundamentally its a compromise, you lose the tiny 22t granny gear and the big 46t outer chainring but those gears didnt make much sense anyway and most people will spend the majority of time in the middle.

I run 40/28 at the front and 12-36 at the back and have plenty enough range to cover everything in the UK. The big advantage is the front mech only has two positions so works a lot better and doesnt need continual maintenance. The 40t chainring has slightly more clearance too so doesnt hit rocks and things either.

Rear mechs can now cope with much greater cassette ranges too. I generally find I am in the 40t ring a lot of the time and just use the range of the cassette as needed.

Run it with a clutch mech to keep the chain under greater tension as the clutch prevents the lower half of the mech from riding forwards (which reduces shifting performance), you can shift whilst fully loading the cranks too.

[richardxjr]

Converted my SLX 3x10 to 1x10, more than enough gears. The middle chainring on a triple does give a better chainline for this conversion though compared to a double.

I lost half a kilo, have lovely uncluttered bars, no front mech to foul, no chainslap/suck and stronger legs

[shouldbworking]

One cracking reason to change setup now is the wide spread availability of clutch mechs. unless they are available in 9 speed now.

[anonymous-user]

Cut straight to "1by" and save yourself a lot of hassle / expense in the long run!

[uncinqsix]

I have 3x9 on the Hybrid, and can't think of a single advantage it would have over 2x10. I suppose it was useful having the 26x32 lowest gear when I started riding last year, but that was 19kg and 8500km ago and I don't really need such low gearing any more.

I actually think 1x10 would do the job given a suitable wide range on the cassette, and this is taking into account the hills around here...