1 x 10 drivetrain experiences please.

[Blue Hills]

My only concerns with the 1X setup is the ridiculous prices of those dinner plates cassettes. Often up to 5-6 times the cost of a bog standard cassette you’d use with 2x or 3x.

yep quite - a massive con - I don't know if the OP is planning to use this bike as a tourer - if so I wouldn't go down the 1x route however the gear tables stacked up.

 

[figbat]

My only concerns with the 1X setup is the ridiculous prices of those dinner plates cassettes. Often up to 5-6 times the cost of a bog standard cassette you’d use with 2x or 3x.

True enough, although this is somewhat mitigated by fewer chainrings, no FD and no front shifter. For offroad use I'll take the simplicity and clearance offered by 1x over 20 minutes spent discharging my Camelbak water onto a mud-clogged FD in order to continue riding. Plus it makes cleaning the bike easier. Most of my offroad bikes are now 1x (two by my intervention, one by design), but my road bike is 2x10 and I have no intention of modifying that one.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

True enough, although this is somewhat mitigated by fewer chainrings, no FD and no front shifter.

Even the cost of three front chain rings plus normal cassette is often less than a single dinner plate cassette. The shifter and FD tend to last the lifetime of the bike unless you crash and damage them. The front chain rings rarely need replacing and when they do it’s often just one at a time.

 

[Blue Hills]

The shifter and FD tend to last the lifetime of the bike unless you crash and damage them.

Flat bar shimano shifters particularly reliable i think. Have been back into cycling 25 years and in that time only bust two - first a very cheap 7 speed set with tiddly screws for cover - second a quality 9speed one currently out of action as I stupidly used a nonJIS screwdriver on the rear cover/plate screws.

 

[T4tomo]

Even the cost of three front chain rings plus normal cassette is often less than a single dinner plate cassette. The shifter and FD tend to last the lifetime of the bike unless you crash and damage them. The front chain rings rarely need replacing and when they do it’s often just one at a time.

Indeed cost of front "bits" would be a consideration if building up a frame from scratch, a conversion generally is just more cost

my gravel bike came built as a 1x but is 10 spd 11-34 at the back so avoids the silly high cost of 11spd. 11-42 cassettes.

 

[chriswoody]

The price of 1 x cassettes is indeed eye watering, for example I recently paid €95 for a SRAM 11 speed 10 - 42 cassette, an equivalent 9 speed SRAM cassette would be €22. That cassette is certainly one of the cheaper 1X cassettes around and there are many at much more eye watering prices.

To balance that out slightly though is the longevity of these cassettes. People often erroneously think that 1x drive trains wear out more quickly, when in fact the opposite is true. One test was ran by Zero Friction Cycling and their results are mentioned in this article:
https://cyclingtips.com/2019/12/the...ity-and-efficiency-tested/#8-9-10-11-12-speed

"It seems that with each gear added, durability has improved. And at least for Shimano chains, 10-speed saw a significant jump in durability from 9- and 8-speed, and Shimano’s latest 12-speed XTR mountain bike chain rules the roost as Shimano’s most durable offering."

I can certainly attest to that with my own experiences, the cassette on my bike has been on there since 2016 when the bike was manufactured and has certainly not seen the kind of pampering or looking after that it should of done. I don't really tally up my mileage, but it is quite a few thousand, most of which is off-road, along with touring and year round use. The only thing I have done is replace the chain when it reaches a certain amount of wear and I currently have gone through 3 chains in this time. It is almost at the end of it's life now though and I do have a spare sat on my shelf for when it finally dies, but It's still hanging on in there.

Before anyone mentions it, I know this doesn't completely balance out, you would need to buy nearly five 9 speed cassettes for the price of mine, and so 9 speed definitely wins hands down in the value for money stakes. The point I'm making though, is that you will get a lot of mileage out of 1x systems and you won't be having to be regularly dipping into your pocket for new drivetrain components.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

A 9 speed cassette will last at least 3 if not 4 chain replacements. A 9 speed chain can be had for £11.99, it could be had for £6.99 before the pandemic. As for wear I know this is slightly different but my 9 speed chain on my recumbent which is 2.5 times as long as I’d have on a road bike has lasted 21,432km. Which translates to 8,500km per chain.

Where 1X will win out on wear is that the cassette cogs will be worn more evenly. Cassettes are usually replaced because there are one or two sprockets that are worn (and slipping) and the rest are fine. With 1X you’re shifting across the entire range much more often, therefore it’ll take longer to wear any particular sprocket.

From a cost point of view I don’t think 1X and extra wide cassettes stack up, but that’s not the only consideration.

 

[Gillstay]

yep quite - a massive con - I don't know if the OP is planning to use this bike as a tourer - if so I wouldn't go down the 1x route however the gear tables stacked up.

I would be using it for everything and only do light touring now.

 

[rogerzilla]

Some setups dump the chain frequently when changing to a smaller sprocket (the chain goes momentarily slack and a wave travels along it, flipping it off the chainring). A proper clutched rear mech should prevent this. Otherwise you'll need a chain catcher, chainguards or a narrow-wide chainring. My experience of the latter is very poor.