I have noticed that some new mountain bikes have a single front chain ring with no ft mech. Can you but road bikes with the same set up and can you build a frame up from scratch with a single front chain ring... just curious..
cheers peeps
Single front chain ring.
Re: Single front chain ring.
Welcome.
There's a vast amount on this in the archives. I'd start with calculating what ratio of top to bottom gear you want.
And this thread: "Single front chainset":
viewtopic.php?t=149591
Jonathan
There's a vast amount on this in the archives. I'd start with calculating what ratio of top to bottom gear you want.
And this thread: "Single front chainset":
viewtopic.php?t=149591
Jonathan
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Stoneybatter
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Re: Single front chain ring.
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Last edited by Stoneybatter on 20 Aug 2022, 1:17pm, edited 1 time in total.
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JohnMorgan
- Posts: 111
- Joined: 9 Jun 2022, 7:19pm
Re: Single front chain ring.
SJS (purely as an example) offer a six speed freewheels, 14 -28 teeth that give 45 to 90 gear inches with a 48 teeth front ring on 700 wheels. Sort of an average spread? My Galaxy with 14 - 32 teeth gives 30 - 93 with 36 & 48 teeth front rings and 27” wheels.
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Carlton green
- Posts: 3715
- Joined: 22 Jun 2019, 12:27pm
Re: Single front chain ring.
As others have already said a single front chainwheel can work very well. In the mid 1980’s I used a five speed 14 - 34 driven by a single chainwheel of 48T - or was 46T - and covered literally thousands of miles with it.
As for buying here’s a seller: https://www.islabikes.co.uk/collections/adults-bikes
Last edited by Carlton green on 28 Aug 2022, 1:51pm, edited 1 time in total.
Don’t fret, it’s OK to: ride a simple old bike; ride slowly, walk, rest and admire the view; ride off-road; ride in your raincoat; ride by yourself; ride in the dark; and ride one hundred yards or one hundred miles. Your bike and your choices to suit you.
Re: Single front chain ring.
FWIW: My Cannodale Synapse road bike has a single 44 tooth chain ring.
Re: Single front chain ring.
Works very well for many uses IMO. You don't get the same range of gears so I still use 3x9 for touring. My everyday bike is a 1x9. The gearing gets me 25mph top end spinning out and the low gear is low enough to get me up any hill I need to around Glasgow.
I use an 11-32 or 11-34 cassette..
I use an 11-32 or 11-34 cassette..
Re: Single front chain ring.
Most "gravel" bikes nowadays have this configuration (well loads of them anyway)
With up to 13 rear sprockets being an option the scope is huge. The increase in sprockets either gives you a greater range of gears to make up for the single front ring or it allows closer ratios/smaller gaps for the same limits.
It is very much a taste thing. I don't like the gaps between gears but my two pub bikes have single rings with close (ish) ratio rear sprockets as my local pubs either have few hills near by or I get off and walk up them.
In days past a 4 or 5 speed freewheel and a single chain ring was the norm.
So the answer is yes. Stacks of bike run as you suggest.
With up to 13 rear sprockets being an option the scope is huge. The increase in sprockets either gives you a greater range of gears to make up for the single front ring or it allows closer ratios/smaller gaps for the same limits.
It is very much a taste thing. I don't like the gaps between gears but my two pub bikes have single rings with close (ish) ratio rear sprockets as my local pubs either have few hills near by or I get off and walk up them.
In days past a 4 or 5 speed freewheel and a single chain ring was the norm.
So the answer is yes. Stacks of bike run as you suggest.
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simonineaston
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- Location: ...at a cricket ground
Re: Single front chain ring.
Doc Moulton was ahead of the game on this one and launched the AM7 with a single chainring, then went on to work with Shimano to produce the Capreo groupset, with a 9-32t cassette, now sadly no longer made. My own battered old AM sports a freewheel made up from a SunTour winner pro which is 8 speeds, 9-28t on a single chainring.
Modern offerings from Microshift, Sram etc make this an attractive option, with today's super-flexible chains happy to accomodate the range of movement needed - older, stiffer chains around in the '80s usually needed a keep at the chainring to keep them in place.
Modern offerings from Microshift, Sram etc make this an attractive option, with today's super-flexible chains happy to accomodate the range of movement needed - older, stiffer chains around in the '80s usually needed a keep at the chainring to keep them in place.
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
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rualexander
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Re: Single front chain ring.
Been running 1x on my road bike for about four or five years now.
Works well, I have the gearing biased to hill climbing as that is the terrain around here, currently have 34t chainring and 11-46 cassette.
Don't need to be able to pedal going downhill at over 40km/h
Works well, I have the gearing biased to hill climbing as that is the terrain around here, currently have 34t chainring and 11-46 cassette.
Don't need to be able to pedal going downhill at over 40km/h
Re: Single front chain ring.
The English traditional road bike is 1x, front derailleurs being a French abomination. 
Grandfather road a Williams 46t crank and a 13-26 5 speed block.
Grandfather road a Williams 46t crank and a 13-26 5 speed block.
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Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-AG
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Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-AG
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Re: Single front chain ring.
I had one of those, back in about 1980.
"Proper bikes" had a 52-42 double chainring, but economy bikes for the likes of me made do with just the one.
I remember riding up Winnats in a 46x28 bottom gear, vividly.
These days, bikes with a wide range 11-50 12-speed cassettes make it much easier to use just one (smaller) chainring.
The downside is that the cassettes are comparatively expensive.
Re: Single front chain ring.
In the 70s I had a Peugot tourer with a 52/40 double and a 14-28 5 speed block. Nominally a 10 speed. But subtract the rarely used 52/14 top and the duplicate gears and it was a 7 speed. My current 1x9 has more gears.andrew_s wrote: ↑28 Aug 2022, 11:52pmI had one of those, back in about 1980.
"Proper bikes" had a 52-42 double chainring, but economy bikes for the likes of me made do with just the one.
I remember riding up Winnats in a 46x28 bottom gear, vividly.
These days, bikes with a wide range 11-50 12-speed cassettes make it much easier to use just one (smaller) chainring.
The downside is that the cassettes are comparatively expensive.
Re: Single front chain ring.
One other disadvantage of a single chain ring set-up is that because the chain has to adopt some extreme angles, some of the gears are a bit inefficient, robbing you of some of the effort that you put in. In tests, efficiency is more like that of a hub gear set-up than a two ring derailleur system. But if you prioritise simplicity over efficiency, it might be worth it. My feeling is, if you are willing to accept that reduced efficiency for the sake of simplicity of use, why not go down the hub gear route and enjoy a reduction in maintenance time?
Re: Single front chain ring.
On the original question, though haven't done the maths I must say for me personally am not a fan of the idea as I have some damn big hills where I cycle and am quite often carrying a fair bit, even if just shopping. And though I have the idea that the maths can be made to work with a big dinner plate rear set of cogs, there's no way I'm paying those sorts of prices for a consumable.
on hub gears, I was a great fan of the single chainring SRAM dualdrive on my speed pro - 3 internal gears matched with just 7 speeds at the back shifted by a derailleur on a modest 7 speed cassette with a 32 (I think) biggest cog that could be had cheaply as it was used on many modest bikes. Though only 3x7 I have been up many a near mountain on that and never had to walk.
Pic: (I have another somewhere of it at the bottom of something fearsome it was about to go up)
The dualdrive was of course discontinued.
No doubt our sorely missed brucey would have insights about whether there were good reasons for its demise.
Sweep