IMO 1x was more widespread and more important since it allowed a lot of cross and MTB guys to plug directly in to gravel both conceptually and technically with bikes they already had. 46/30 seems much newer and also relatively less common, even today. 1x was off the shelf and OEM years before 46/30 IIRC? 1x feels significant starting prior to 2015 and 46/30 after 2017 - mainly from GRX?
1x and cantis or mini-vs/QR was something I saw a lot, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen 46/30 on anything other than a TA/oversize headtube/disc bike.
46/30 is for weird dirt road touring rigs and in my experience was not really part of the zeitgeist outside of Heine and Fancy Fred and such. PNW 650B front load nerd machines are the target market for that crankset: I don’t think gravel as a marketing exercise really used those unicorn cranks.
Lots of cross bikes got setup with kludged 1x cranks and MTB danglers because durability and if you need that low gear on most cross courses you might as well run.
I worked at Performance from 2011 until the end of 2014 and we sold a few different 1x cross models to customers who wanted to ride “gravel grinders” but none of the brands we sold ever had an actual gravel bike model before I left.
Naturally there are regional/individual conceptions, I put together a monstercross bike over fall 2014 because gravel bikes weren’t really a thing here at that time. By Summer 2015 they were. This is super interesting because I was chasing this trend by then but only seeing a small part of the bigger picture.
When did 1x cross become available for OEM? It feels old but that’s probably my memory playing tricks.
ETA: Looks like we sold a 1x Fuji and a 1x Scattante that were available right at the end of 2014 for MY2015.
Yeah it was pretty rare to encounter a nerd with a subcompact. We had a lot of threads about it here. I’m not sure 1x is important in this evolution though. Having less gearing is not really in the spirit of gravé. It was definitely an innovation designed to play well with bikes with suspension as well as a way to keep your chain on your chainring in cyclocross and not much more.
1X definitely seems like it went MTB->bikepacking->gravel, and gravel bikes only started taking it on as a “standard” with recent newer groups.
Compact road and cx was definitely pretty normal, I guess. My 2010 Crosscheck (not really gravel but certainly a precursor to some of the ideas) came with a… 48/36 or something like that. Another "repurposed CX vector for gravel evolution, I suppose.
So supersubcompact stump puller gears: not so crucial, this is the jury’s verdict?
i think 1:1 is a requirement but much below that and you end up sacrificing the road reminiscent close-ish steps between gears which is or should be a facet of gravel bike
for sure other than us bold enough to buy into WI cranks or more elusive boutique subcompact. i will say a lot of road stuff played well enough with 32t big cog
and i’ve never used a thl- my x9/gx dangers never had a problem with 32t cogs but i never sought out big ass cassettes
I’ve not been very gear-minded for a few years but I do think you can get some stupid low gears with 1x that you couldn’t very easily before like GRX came out, right? But yeah, not consequential atmo. I rode my Rick Jones this week with a friend on GRX and halfway up the 1600 ft climb realized he was spinning a lower gear than me. His darn inner ring was smaller than mine for the first time ever.
And yes, I still have a couple of tail hook lengtheners I ordered in bulk from China at @featherduster 's suggestion. Been giving one or two away per year to interested parties lol. Last victim was @Orloved .
Are you actually able to make it up that hill where you turn right onto dirt (~mile 2)? I am excited to try out my new Thunderbutts because I never had enough traction to get up that without walking (in road shoes duh)
Also did you do it at night as planned, I really want to do that! The only thing that could possibly make it better is if you could build a fire out on that point that projects into the lake
Nah, that first evening was freezing! We’re thinking about a winter stealth camp adventure though I’ve ridden up it before (with burts, I think). I walked the top 1/3 of switchbacks or so this time in part because of ancient 47mm compass tires not having great traction on a carpet of leaves and partly because I didn’t like the way that the effort was making my knees feel (i.e. I was going too slow to spin a good cadence).
You could do some good winter stealthing around mud pond. I have never seen anyone back there even once. You take a left toward the top of the trail (I’m sure you’ve seen the sign)
I’ve ridden up it before (with burts, I think). I walked the top 1/3 of switchbacks or so this time in part because of ancient 47mm compass tires not having great traction on a carpet of leaves and partly because I didn’t like the way that the effort was making my knees feel (i.e. I was going too slow to spin a good cadence).