1×9 is Best Left to the Big Wheels

June 6th, 2007 by Brad Quartuccio

Tim’s post about Redline’s new 1×9 bike got me thinking. Back in the days when 8-speed was new, I made a few attempts of 1×8 and 1×7 setups on my 26″ bikes of the day. Attempts. None of them worked particularly well, all were quickly retired. The cross-gearing that would occur with only one ring up front and a whole cluster in back led to missed shifts and broken chains. Couldn’t overcome that poor chainline.

These days however plenty of folks are having success with 1×9 setups, with even a few complete bikes available. And most seem to be sporting 29″ wheels, for good reason. It’s all mechanical this time - no 29er evangelizing here. The crux of the 1×9 biscuit lies in the chainstay length, along with proper overall setup. The 26″ bikes I was experimenting with were of the 1990’s east coast variety - Spooky, Eastern Woods Reseach - with chainstays near 16″ long. Without getting into spreadsheets of measurements, many 29″ bikes have 17-18″ chainstays. Quite a bit of difference, and enough so that the effects of crossed gears and poor chainline are mitigated. By spreading out the misalignment between the most extreme gears of a 1×9 setup, the chain actually meshes with the cogs more appropriately than on an identical setup with a shorter chainstay.

Surely given bikes and given setups with prove me wrong, I’m sure there are 26″ wheeled 1×10 bikes out there with happy owners. And 29″ frames with shorter/longer chainstays. I’m just sayin’.

5 Responses to “1×9 is Best Left to the Big Wheels”

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1 Bob on Jun 6th, 2007 at 2:30 pm

Bike boom 10 speeds (with two front rings) really only had about 8 usable gears. This however was mostly due to the chains and ring/cogs of the time. The same would be somewhat true of 199x mountain bikes. With modern bikes there are narrower spacings between cogs and rings, and thinner, more flexible, better built bushingless chains. This eliminates most of the problems with chain deflection. However on any 1x something drive train, you are best off running a single speed chain ring up front. The lack of shifting ramps and pins, and longer teeth help prevent the chian from jumping as it moves back and forth and while mashing.
2 James on Jun 6th, 2007 at 3:53 pm

Brad,

I run a 1×9 on my ‘07 Stumpy FSR Comp (26″ wheels) and am very happy with it. I also run an e.13 chainguide with an idler pulley. I do not regularly use the lowest two gears in the back, so I have set the chainline to be dead-on in the 5th sprocket. Gears 3-9 are perfect, and 1 & 2 are functional but a little noisy. I have had no issues with shifting or chain breakage.
3 nalax on Jun 6th, 2007 at 4:43 pm

I run 1×9 on my Ibis Mojo.

I also run 1×9 on my Soma Juice.

Both work perfectly. I’m just sayin’
4 GeologyJoe on Jun 7th, 2007 at 9:15 pm

I run a 1×8 on my ‘93 cinder cone with no problem. Its been great for crappy weather road rides and has always been a beast. But I can see your point as the shorter chain length wouldn’t necessarily allow for lateral flexibility.
5 Zhao on Jun 8th, 2007 at 12:09 am

I run 1×9 on my dirt jumper and so does my friend. it works very well with a sram 990 cassette and X9 shortcage. I also have a chain guide on it.

1×9 is Best Left to the Big Wheels

5 Responses to “1×9 is Best Left to the Big Wheels”

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