I must admit I thought the 1x10 drivetrain was interesting actually quite appealing (less maintenance)...
My Trek runs a standard 10-speed Ultegra setup with compact chainset – i.e. 50/34 chainrings – and an 11-28 cassette which means my lowest gear is 34/28 (1.2 gear ratio) and although I top out at 50/11 (4.6) the vast majority of the time I'm in 6th or 7th (sometimes 8th) on the rear cassette. According to BikeCalc.com, 42/36 is the same gear ratio (1.2) as my current setup, so I wouldn't be losing anything at the low end. Despite 3 years commuting 28 miles a day my legs won't push 9th or 10th (unless I'm going downhill LOL!) which means I tend to pootle along in 50/15 (3.3) or 50/14 (3.6) and very occasionally 50/13 (3.9) – the highest gear on the CdA 20 might only be 42/11 but that's a gear ratio of 3.8 which I think in reality might suit me perfectly....
Maybe I'm missing something else though? I do much prefer the look of the CdA20...
