The last two years was mainly an off year for biking, just too many things to do, Trail running mostly, Excuses excuses..

Anyway this year  2018 now that I’m retired I have a little more time on my hands so I have at least for the moment started mountain biking again, not  much road singlespeed biking  as my left ankle is still  fucked up with a long-lasting tendonitis and no gears means I have to work a little too hard, so it’s good excuse to get on a mountain bike using gears

Talking about gears, I’ve decided to go 1*10 like most of my friends, the only problem is that my free wheel can only take a 11 speed Shimano tops, or a 10 speed Sram

To go 11 or 12 speed Sram I need to change the free wheel on my TUNE King Kong hub, and that’s expensive @160€ just for the free wheel

So for the moment I now running a 10 speed

SunRace MX3 10V 11-42 cassette as it was basically the first I found
and up front a SRAM chainring X-Sync Direct Mount 6mm Offset 11V 32

 

 

With this set up, I kept my front XTR shifter and back XTR dérailleur (both are 10 speed models) and was ready to rock and roll, or rather ride …..

I’ve now ridden three rides about 110kms with the 1 * 10 setup, you forget quite quickly about the front chainrings or rather ring, and no longer having a left front shifter any more. and the back cassette well that’s nothing new except BIGGER….

The bike weight stays about the same, you lose the big front chainring and shifter but get a heavier bigger cassette, the SunRace weighs in at 387 gms ….

With these mods and a dropper seat that I added a couple of years back, the bike weighs in at just over 11 kilos.

UPCOMING

I’m going to re do the Roc d’Azur this year, after taking three years off, running a 1 * 10 setup and being 60 years old, would be a little difficult so I going to change the setup slightly and try a 1*11, as I stated up top, I can fit a 11 speed Shimano on my 10 speed free wheel.

So I’ll try a XT 11 – 46, this giving me one more ring , and jumping from a 42 max to a 46 teeth (450 gms though) and if not enough I’ll just use a 30 chain ring for the Roc rather than the 32.

Of course I need to change the front shifters & back derailleur to a 11v setup but that about all.

This will be done in the upcoming months

 

So what do I think ?

Riding the 1*10 setup here where I live is Ok, I was worried about not having a 42*9 while on the straights or downhill, but finally the 32*10 is just fine, maybe that’s me getting older, slower and less strong in the legs, but so far so good

I know already I’ll need a 46 rather than a 42 cassette for some hills, and if that’s not enough, well I’ll get off the bike and push it

Of course this also depends on where you live, here its a normal terrain, hills nothing to nasty, go down the south of France for the Roc d’Azur then Ok I know it won’t do, therefore a 50 cassette or a 30 chainring, but that’s not often so I can live without it.

Its fun , the bike looks streamlined and clean