1 x FOR RACING - Adam Blythe comments...

pedro118118

Some very damning comments here from Adam Blythe!

“3T bikes to be honest [led to this], I think they make great handlebars but terrible bikes. “We’ve been on one chainring all year haven’t we? It’s terrible.

“It’s just like a track bike with gears on it. There’s only one chainring and if you imagine you’re doing a climb, normally you’d have a 38 ring to drop down to but now you’ve just got a 10 cassette that goes up to a 42 with a 50 chainring on the front. So you’re knackered, you can’t race around in a one-day race let alone a two-week race or one-week race.

Uncomfortable reading for Gerard Vroomen et al and somewhat contrary to the marketing bumf!

ddraver

viewtopic.php?f=40002&t=13092042&start=260

davebradswmb

He's understandably upset about how Acqua Blue has been run, but what he is saying doesn't make sense. If he has got a 42 tooth sprocket and a 50 tooth chainring he is in almost the same gear as a 32 tooth sprocket on a 38 tooth chainring. I guess that there is still the option of going for a 34 tooth chainring, but he doesn't mention this.

A lot of riders don't like the 1x system because of the big gaps in the ratios, but I don't think that we can take too much heed of the opinion of anyone who was riding for Acqua Blue because it will be coloured by their bad experience with the team.

joe_totale-2

davebradswmb wrote:

He's understandably upset about how Acqua Blue has been run, but what he is saying doesn't make sense. If he has got a 42 tooth sprocket and a 50 tooth chainring he is in almost the same gear as a 32 tooth sprocket on a 38 tooth chainring. I guess that there is still the option of going for a 34 tooth chainring, but he doesn't mention this.

A lot of riders don't like the 1x system because of the big gaps in the ratios, but I don't think that we can take too much heed of the opinion of anyone who was riding for Acqua Blue because it will be coloured by their bad experience with the team.

Agreed. I'd have understood if he complained about maintaining a steady cadence due to the big gaps in the cassette.

I get the feeling that 1x needs to be at least 13 or even 14 speed as well as electronic before pro teams will think of adopting it again.

fenix

So they'd have been winning all of the flat one day races ? Did they not do that ???

bobmcstuff

Joe Totale wrote:

davebradswmb wrote:

He's understandably upset about how Acqua Blue has been run, but what he is saying doesn't make sense. If he has got a 42 tooth sprocket and a 50 tooth chainring he is in almost the same gear as a 32 tooth sprocket on a 38 tooth chainring. I guess that there is still the option of going for a 34 tooth chainring, but he doesn't mention this.

A lot of riders don't like the 1x system because of the big gaps in the ratios, but I don't think that we can take too much heed of the opinion of anyone who was riding for Acqua Blue because it will be coloured by their bad experience with the team.

Agreed. I'd have understood if he complained about maintaining a steady cadence due to the big gaps in the cassette.

I get the feeling that 1x needs to be at least 13 or even 14 speed as well as electronic before pro teams will think of adopting it again.

As per the linked thread, apparently they were mechanical problems with the freehub

arthur_scrimshaw

bobmcstuff wrote:

Joe Totale wrote:

davebradswmb wrote:

He's understandably upset about how Acqua Blue has been run, but what he is saying doesn't make sense. If he has got a 42 tooth sprocket and a 50 tooth chainring he is in almost the same gear as a 32 tooth sprocket on a 38 tooth chainring. I guess that there is still the option of going for a 34 tooth chainring, but he doesn't mention this.

A lot of riders don't like the 1x system because of the big gaps in the ratios, but I don't think that we can take too much heed of the opinion of anyone who was riding for Acqua Blue because it will be coloured by their bad experience with the team.

Agreed. I'd have understood if he complained about maintaining a steady cadence due to the big gaps in the cassette.

I get the feeling that 1x needs to be at least 13 or even 14 speed as well as electronic before pro teams will think of adopting it again.

As per the linked thread, apparently they were mechanical problems with the freehub

Not the only problem according to the Cyclingtips website

'CyclingTips was one of several media outlets sent an anonymous email purportedly from someone within the team. That email laid much of the blame at equipment partner 3T, saying that the supplied bikes had many mechanical issues, that the promised time trial bikes were never supplied and that the riders were so concerned that they wanted to use other machines in the Tour of Britain. When reached for comment, 3T’s Gerard Vroomen responded that its contract contained no binding delivery date for the time trial bikes and acknowledged the team had struggled with chain drops but did not state the cause.'

Ironic that the only real advantage of 1x purported by it's advocates was in fact a problem.

ddraver

The whole show hasnt been helped by people determined to use it to disparage 1x.... :roll:

fenix

Did you see the review of the bike by Road.cc I think it was ? They raved about the machine.

timothyw

I think the main issue that they had was trying to fund themselves via the Aqua Blue online bike shop.

I'm a keen cyclist and daily bike commuter, spend a small fortune on bike bits, watch all the grand tours and monuments etc, have a eurosport player subscription, spend a surprising amount of time on this forum.

And I had zero idea until this week that Aqua Blue was a shop on which I could buy bike stuff. For all I knew it could have been an aftershave.

Sorry fellers, Wiggle already exists. Good luck with the next venture.....

r0bh

ddraver wrote:

The whole show hasnt been helped by people determined to use it to disparage 1x.... :roll:

What, using riders saying that they had loads of problems with a 1x setup to disparage 1x setups?

I still have no idea what problem 1x supposedly solves for road riding

Mad_Malx

TimothyW wrote:

I think the main issue that they had was trying to fund themselves via the Aqua Blue online bike shop.

I'm a keen cyclist and daily bike commuter, spend a small fortune on bike bits, watch all the grand tours and monuments etc, have a eurosport player subscription, spend a surprising amount of time on this forum.

And I had zero idea until this week that Aqua Blue was a shop on which I could buy bike stuff. For all I knew it could have been an aftershave.

Sorry fellers, Wiggle already exists. Good luck with the next venture.....

Spot on for me too.

craigus89

Whats the supposed advantage of a 1X setup?

ddraver

Mad_Malx wrote:

TimothyW wrote:

I think the main issue that they had was trying to fund themselves via the Aqua Blue online bike shop.

I'm a keen cyclist and daily bike commuter, spend a small fortune on bike bits, watch all the grand tours and monuments etc, have a eurosport player subscription, spend a surprising amount of time on this forum.

And I had zero idea until this week that Aqua Blue was a shop on which I could buy bike stuff. For all I knew it could have been an aftershave.

Sorry fellers, Wiggle already exists. Good luck with the next venture.....

Spot on for me too.

Yep.

Craigus89 wrote:

Whats the supposed advantage of a 1X setup?

Do we have to do this again?

joe_totale-2

Craigus89 wrote:

Whats the supposed advantage of a 1X setup?

Ease of maintenance and removal of problems caused by the front dérailleur. Which is mainly negated by the fact that pro riders have a team of mechanics looking after their bikes.

3T claimed that the 1x version of the Strada was more aero than the 2x one.

dstev55

Craigus89 wrote:

Whats the supposed advantage of a 1X setup?

Not a lot. I just don't get it myself. Living in a hilly area I couldn't think of anything worse than losing a front chainring and I'm not surprised some of the pro riders are not getting on with the 3T bikes.

craigus89

ddraver wrote:

Craigus89 wrote:

Whats the supposed advantage of a 1X setup?

Do we have to do this again?

Sorry, I really didn't know.

I assumed it must have been more than maintenance for it to be used by the pros, as has been mentioned above.

It seems like a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.

DeVlaeminck

I don't really see much advantage in a 1x but freehub issues are surely to do with the wheels and nothing to do with it being a single chainring setup ?

Dropped chains and I can see as an issue - no front mech to keep the chain on - echoes of David Millar losing a prologue some years ago. Would they be using a narrow wide chain which I think most or all MTB single ring setups tend to use - I thought they had a slight cost in terms of watts so maybe not.

For many races I don't think the lack of gears would really be an issue - on mountainous races yes maybe the cassette range would mean gaps in the ratios but on many races I doubt pros get out of the big ring.

edit - the test bikes had a clutched rear mech - not used one of those - obviously the pros weren't convinced assuming they had them.

gweeds

Are people regularly having problems with their front mechs then?

cougie

I've seen American triathletes really getting excited about the Watts they can save by getting rid of the bulky un aero front mech and inner chainring. In the real world it's never going to make you faster.

If it did then aqua blue would have won more.

r0bh

Joe Totale wrote:

Craigus89 wrote:

Whats the supposed advantage of a 1X setup?

Ease of maintenance and removal of problems caused by the front dérailleur.

Of the things on my bike that cause problems, the front mech is nowhere near the top of the list.

bobmcstuff

r0bh wrote:

ddraver wrote:

The whole show hasnt been helped by people determined to use it to disparage 1x.... :roll:

What, using riders saying that they had loads of problems with a 1x setup to disparage 1x setups?

I still have no idea what problem 1x supposedly solves for road riding

The problems don't seem to necessarily have been related to the 1x setup. Especially the freehub problems. MTBs and CX on 1x also don't regularly suffer from chain drops which suggests that issue should have been easily addressable also.

I also don't really see what the benefit of 1x is for a pro rider (except marginal aero) but it sounds more like an issue with the 3T bike specifically than a general 1x issue.

slowbike

cougie wrote:

I've seen American triathletes really getting excited about the Watts they can save by getting rid of the bulky un aero front mech and inner chainring. In the real world it's never going to make you faster.

If it did then aqua blue would have won more.

When running my old road bike as a TT conversion I added aerobars and bar end shifters - I didn't bother with the front mech shifter as I didn't shift out of the 52T chainring - but then, it was 10 miles, flat(ish) and once a week - perhaps I could've saved watts and watts if I'd just dumped the whole front mech ... but there were better gains to be had- like training!

I really don't see what the whole 1x fuss is about - aesthetically it cleans up the bottom bracket area - but for what - gaps in the gear selection and a f*ckoff dinner plate rear cassette ... I'll stick with my 2x and 3x setups thanks .... they work just fine

joe_totale-2

r0bh wrote:

Joe Totale wrote:

Craigus89 wrote:

Whats the supposed advantage of a 1X setup?

Ease of maintenance and removal of problems caused by the front dérailleur.

Of the things on my bike that cause problems, the front mech is nowhere near the top of the list.

Likewise! They were the only reasons I could think of.

No_Ta_Doctor

r0bh wrote:

Joe Totale wrote:

Craigus89 wrote:

Whats the supposed advantage of a 1X setup?

Ease of maintenance and removal of problems caused by the front dérailleur.

Of the things on my bike that cause problems, the front mech is nowhere near the top of the list.

Of the things on my bike that cause problems, everything non-biological is nowhere near the top of the list.

Dorset_Boy

How aero really can the front chainring area be anyway when it has legs, feet and pedals moving around there every pedal stroke distorting the airflow?
1x is probably a good idea for crits, but I also fail to see the point for real world riding.
Not being able to find the right gear ratio is pretty tiring too.

Vino'sGhost

cougie wrote:

I've seen American triathletes really getting excited about the Watts they can save by getting rid of the bulky un aero front mech and inner chainring. In the real world it's never going to make you faster.

If it did then aqua blue would have won more.

How do they feel about having to get off their bikes and sort the chain problems lololol

Vino'sGhost

it looked like a bad idea, it turned out to be a bad idea but not just for the obvious reasons but also some no one had thought about.

Some people bang on about new designs and innovation but unless its an improvement its just marketing fluff.

supermurph09

TimothyW wrote:

I think the main issue that they had was trying to fund themselves via the Aqua Blue online bike shop.

I'm a keen cyclist and daily bike commuter, spend a small fortune on bike bits, watch all the grand tours and monuments etc, have a eurosport player subscription, spend a surprising amount of time on this forum.

And I had zero idea until this week that Aqua Blue was a shop on which I could buy bike stuff. For all I knew it could have been an aftershave.

Sorry fellers, Wiggle already exists. Good luck with the next venture.....

The same for me too! Had know idea they were a retailer.

Moonbiker

I've seen American triathletes really getting excited about the Watts they can save by getting rid of the bulky un aero front mech and inner chainring. In the real world it's never going to make you faster.

But X1 is bascially cross chaining which is less effiecent.

Same triatheletes probably but thoose special low friction jockey wheels also....

above_the_cows

TimothyW wrote:

I think the main issue that they had was trying to fund themselves via the Aqua Blue online bike shop.

I'm a keen cyclist and daily bike commuter, spend a small fortune on bike bits, watch all the grand tours and monuments etc, have a eurosport player subscription, spend a surprising amount of time on this forum.

And I had zero idea until this week that Aqua Blue was a shop on which I could buy bike stuff. For all I knew it could have been an aftershave.

Sorry fellers, Wiggle already exists. Good luck with the next venture.....

It's a bike shop? :shock:

I don't know whether I should be more embarrassed for myself for not knowing that or for the people responsible for Aqua Blue marketing. I'm going with the marketing people as that is literally their job.

Literally nothing about the name 'Aqua Blue' says bike shop to me, nothing. Swimming shop maybe, bike shop? Absolutely not.