Hey, everybody, welcome to the single tracks podcast. My name is Jeff, and today Aaron and Greg and I are going to be talking about mountain bike drive trains. In this discussion, we're going to start off talking about the pros and cons of one by versus two by and three by drive trains because that's still a hot topic among a lot of our readers. We're also going to talk

about some of the differences between the different group levels, so SLX versus XT and XTR, and

on the Schramm side, how the X rating system works for them as well. And then we're also going to

talk about some alternative drive trains that

are out there. So some of the geared drive trains that you might have heard about, we'll talk about

oval chain rings and also DI2. So let's jump right into it and start talking about

drivetrain configurations. Greg and Aaron, how do you guys have your drive train

set up? I'm a one-by for life. I've got to tat it on my chest. That's how about that one-by life I am.

No, I prefer one-by on my personal bikes, at least on my mountain bikes. I know that SRAM has done some one-by

drive trains for like gravel and road, but with the hills we have around here on my gravel and

road bike, I'd still prefer the two-by. But I've been running a one-by setup for probably

seven years or more now back in the days of one by nine when the biggest

cassette you could get was like a 32 or maybe a 34 so it's been a minute so i'm personally running

uh still running two by 10 on most of my bikes i've got a number of bikes with different things but

for me the big kicker is gear range. I need a low enough

granny gear to allow my wussy legs to pedal up the mountain. And a one by 11 with a 42-tooth big cog

isn't a low enough granny gear for me. So right now I'm still running two by 10 on most of my stuff.

But with a 46-tooth cog on chimano's one-by-11, that's getting pretty close. And then, you know, we're going to talk more about Eagle later. But with the 12-speed with a 50-tooth bailout gear, that's plenty of range. So for me, it's all about getting the range. I need to get my butt up the mountain.

Yeah, I'm also one by on all of my bikes, like Aaron. And like Aaron, too, yeah, I've been doing it for a long time.

I always find it funny that people think that one by, you know, people who haven't tried it anyway,

think that it's like a marketing thing or it's, you know, people who haven't tried it anyway think that it's like a marketing

thing or it's, you know, hype or a gimmick or whatever, but it's not. I mean, this is something

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