[LyNx]

Are you talking for a 1x or 2x setup? Also, what axle spacing are we talking? IMHO, no matter what you do, if you run a 1x setup, with a regular length freehub shell, you will never have perfect chainline, your chain will be at quite an angle at one or both ends of the cassette. Me personally, I think 150x12 should be the MTB hub standard and a 2x crank, otherwise, you have to compromise somewhere for chainline.

I'm currently running 8 cogs with 10-speed spacing. Chainring set to the middle of the cassette. So basically the 2 cogs with the worst chainline have been removed. I call that better.

 

[kris12ax7]

You would only need 22-25% jumps between each cog to get wide range. 11-14-17-21-26-32-39-48 is rounding up or down from 22 percent jumps between each cog. Basically a gear and a half of a wide range 10 speed per jump.

60 percent jumps between each cog would be 11-18-28-45-72-115-184-294

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I was wrong, as you point out. Each jump shown is 60%ish of the tallest gear... 6 teeth each.

11-48 doesn't match Eagle, but would be wide range.

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[*OneSpeed*]

To answer the OP, yes, maybe. In the past I've desired a very simple wide-ish range 6-8 speed drivetrain. Basically riding each gear as though it were SS if that makes any sense. I like and use 8 speed chains on my SS's as they're cheap and durable.

It's silly really though. There's other good options out there as others have shown.

I'm totally fine with my 1x10 11-42 on my fatbike. I'm also fine with my SS's. I'm all for simplicity, having less gears doesn't inhibit my fun or dampen my experience.

I'm done with front derailleurs, and I assure you I will never own 12 speed. If anything I may do a 1x11 on my new gravel build. 11-46 Shimano comes awfully close to Eagle without the ridiculous expense, unreliability, and finicky BS.

 

[Jayem]

Could I ride it? Yes. Would the gear spreads possibly be too much for good smooth operation? Yes. If it were available, would I use it? Hell no. 11spd works great and I have 3 setups that work awesome for XC racing to DH racing. There would be no benefit for me, just like there's no benefit for me to upgrade to 12 speed, there's nothing there I need and no significant advantage to doing so.

 

[chrisx]

I would be fine with a 8 speed wide range cassette, and a friction thumb shifter. The trigger shifter needs 11 cogs because it has trouble with big jumps. My Sun Tour power thumb shifters work fine on big jumps. I want the 3 smallest cogs a little closer together, to save the chain from jumping off on multi up shifts. Big jumps are fine for the big cogs Do I get a 46, or is it just 42? Does this mean more room for 3 inch tires? No chain rub.

Who makes the wide range 9 speed?

 

[RAKC Ind]

I almost took you serious for a second lol.

And sunrace makes them. Stop at 40 or 42t iirc

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[Suns_PSD]

It's very appealing to me.

I think there is too much shifting, I usually need to shift 2x on my Eagle, and each shift slows me down as I mostly quit applying power.

The fact that I occasionally get passed by guys riding single speeds makes me pretty certain I could be content on an 8 speed. I personally have never used the 2 highest gears except for an occasional downhill pavement run. So I'm already effectively running a 10 speed. So losing 2 more gears seems like an inconsequential change to me. If it was lighter/ cheaper/ more reliable/ required less speed losing shifts I'd be in to it. For my purposes I'd ideally want a low gear of about 48 teeth and about 485% range would be fine.

I must say however, my Eagle XX1 has two advantages over every other system I have ran. First it shifts amazing, even under power. Although that little chain will snap if you get silly with the power shifts. Secondly, on my particular chassis, I get better anti-squat performance with a larger front chain ring, and the eagle 50 tooth allows me to run the needed larger front. That was a pretty big improvement in my bike performance. I wouldn't want to go back to a 46 or 44 low gear for this reason.

 

[dbhammercycle]

Who makes the wide range 9 speed?

Sunrace will have one. 12-40 I think.

 

[LyNx]

As has been said, there wide enough range 9 spd out or coming out already, 8 has gone by the wayside,, so to speak now. Personally I'll never forget that stupid as fock, huge, a$$ jump on Shimano's Mega Range cassettes back in the day, thinkk it was 14 tooth, insane. Unless you were a damn experienced rider who could spin like a hamster on crack, when you made that switch the difference was so huge you ended up just getting off and walking because the sudden increase in RPM just killed your legs and lungs. No thanks

 

[Mr Pig]

I'll never forget that stupid as fock, huge, a$$ jump on Shimano's Mega Range cassettes back in the day..

But the gears weren't evenly spaced on those, it was a fairly normal cassette with a huge jump to the last ring.

 

[chrisx]

View attachment 1170798

How the trigger shifter ruined the mt bike.
and,
the short chainstay killed the front derailleur.

The trigger shifter had a hard time with the big jump, so they had to add more cogs to help it get up there. The cogs kept getting closer to the spokes and the tire. Then we wanted wider tires, yea. The tire started getting closer to the chain. The trigger shifter exists to let some racer guy shift faster. What about the 99% of mt bike riders who do not win prize money or even race.

Bring back the friction thumb shifter. My Sun Tour power thumb shifters are on bicycle number 7, I bought them used. The thumb shifters can make big jumps, not a problem. Without 11 cogs I would not need boost cranks and hubs to make room for comfortable wide tires.

With 11 - 42 my friction shifters area at the limit. They work with 6, 7. 8. 9. and 10 just fine. At 11 they are not precise, I started to get ghost shifting. The thinner cogs leave so little room for error. At 11 the shift cable must be pulled just right, only 1mm to spare.

8 or 9 cogs would work better for me. Yes, I do want a nice big 46 tooth cog. Sadly I will need to buy an 11 speed trigger shifter to make them work.

 

[J.B. Weld]

Bring back the friction thumb shifter.

Also cantilever brakes and 1.9 tires!

jk

To each his own but I've liked trigger shifters since the first 7-speed ones came out and they just keep getting better, I've paid my friction shifting dues and I ain't going back there.

 

[LyNx]

Yes, but if you try to make a 11-46/50 cassette using only 8 cogs, you're going to have some big jump in there of almost a similar nature, probably 10 teeth. Right now on 11spd wide range cassettes, the 6 cog jumps are quite big enough to just barely let you keep a reasonable transition when you switch to it in terms of your leg speed. For me now on an 11-36 10spd cassette even those jumps are at the limit of what I want when wanting an easier or harder gear from what I'm in, it's the difference between being able to find that perfect cadence and continue climbing that steep SOB, or getting off to walk.

But the gears weren't evenly spaced on those, it was a fairly normal cassette with a huge jump to the last ring.

View attachment 1170798

 

[Mr Pig]

Yes, but if you try to make a 11-46/50 cassette using only 8 cogs, you're going to have some big jump in there of almost a similar nature, probably 10 teeth.

I don't see how? An 11-46 8-speed cassette with even spacing would be jumps of five teeth. Considering 10-speed 11-26 cassettes can have jumps of up to six teeth in places I don't see an 8-speed cassette being a problem.

 

[LyNx]

What? I own and ride a 11-36 XT 10spd cassette, there is no jump bigger than 4 teeth, that's it, get your facts straight - 36-32-28-24-21-19-17-15-13-11. So you don't have to hurt that head of yours, I've taken a screen shot from the Shimano PDF showing the ratios and attached it below

How do you figure you take away 2 cogs and increase the largest cog by 10 teeth and still not have jumps over 5 teeth, I'd love to hear the ratios you've figured out :skep: Best I could come up with is 46-38-32-26-21-17-13-11, if you go to a 50t big cog, then you're definitely over an 8t jump at some point.

I don't see how? An 11-46 8-speed cassette with even spacing would be jumps of five teeth. Considering 10-speed 11-26 cassettes can have jumps of up to six teeth in places I don't see an 8-speed cassette being a problem.

 

[TiGeo]

No. I like my Eagle and like my 1x10 11-40 as well.

 

[J.B. Weld]

I don't see how? An 11-46 8-speed cassette with even spacing would be jumps of five teeth.

Even 5t jumps aren't exactly even though. There's good reason why cassettes aren't evenly spaced throughout their range, 11-16 is a monstrous jump whereas 30-36 isn't much at all.

 

[ljsmith]

So I am supposed to sell all my 11 and 12 speed stuff to "upgrade" to 1 x 8? Maybe if you throw in a quill stem and cantilever brakes.

 

[AustinBiker]

I’m a no as well. I don’t even need the Eagle gear range, happy with 10-42 (and yes, XX1 is lighter than eagle, so yeah I’m on that side of the fence). I am occasionally bothered by big skips especially on my hardtail with a 34t chainwheel.

Maybe I don’t put out enough watts but I don’t get the durability issues. I have almost 1000 miles on my trail bike’s X01 and the cassette shifts perfectly. I have been through several chains but I expect that.


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[LyNx]

I'm curious how many chains exactly you've gone through in the 1000 miles? This is the big thing I dislike about 1x setup with so many cogs, the chainline is really bad over at least 1/3 of the cassette which increases chain wear. On my 9spd, 2x setups, I used to get about 700-800 miles on a chain, so far since I moved to 10spd, 2x, it doesn't seem to be much different in terms of miles per chain.

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Maybe I don't put out enough watts but I don't get the durability issues. I have almost 1000 miles on my trail bike's X01 and the cassette shifts perfectly. I have been through several chains but I expect that.