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1,909 Posts
I ride a lot. I commute with my mountain bike on a hilly route to work, so it sees a lot of miles. The trails here have some very difficult climbs. I loved the simplicity of 1x9 but it was overwhelmed, on downhills especially, and so I switched to 2x9 Middleburn Duos.
I've consistently had problems breaking drivetrain parts and the X.0 getting out of adjustment. I bought a big 185mm Surly Mr. Whirly crankset to fit my legs. I plan to mate it with an SRAM 11-32 8-speed cassette, an old XTR derailleur, and SRAM Attack shifters on a new 29er build.
My question is, how many retro-grouch 8-speeders are there still out there? My wife has an 8-speed bike and it just shifts, year after year. I'm friends with an endurance racer who uses 8-speed XTR. I spin pretty well on my 8-speed road bike. There don't seem to be any disadvantages other than losing the 34t cog, but if I gain a 22t granny gear chainring, that's super-low gearing anyway.
I've consistently had problems breaking drivetrain parts and the X.0 getting out of adjustment. I bought a big 185mm Surly Mr. Whirly crankset to fit my legs. I plan to mate it with an SRAM 11-32 8-speed cassette, an old XTR derailleur, and SRAM Attack shifters on a new 29er build.
My question is, how many retro-grouch 8-speeders are there still out there? My wife has an 8-speed bike and it just shifts, year after year. I'm friends with an endurance racer who uses 8-speed XTR. I spin pretty well on my 8-speed road bike. There don't seem to be any disadvantages other than losing the 34t cog, but if I gain a 22t granny gear chainring, that's super-low gearing anyway.