Experiment: 1×13 Drivetrain

Well, someone had to go ahead and try to one up SRAM’s Eagle 12 speed drivetrain. We’re not so sure how practical it is, but here goes…At Interbike, Phil Wood showed off a 1×13 single ring gravel bike, a bit of a Frankenstein, it’s put together with a standard Shimano 1×11 kit and two OneUp chainrings with 45 and 50 teeth. The chain is a Shimano 11 speed, while the derailleur is an XTR modified to allow it to climb in the 13th gear.

The gearing is: 11-13-15-17-19-21-24-27-31-35-40-45-50.

If you can’t tell by the title, this is an experiment in which has little concern for aesthetics. You can see that the shift lever is not the classic Shimano, integrated into the lever, but it has to be driven by the thumb, with odd ergonomics as you can see. The hub has a width of 150mm, 2mm more than the Boost.

Phil Wood is wondering if the next step would be a sprocket of 53 or more, but perhaps the most interesting question is that perhaps with 13 gears, the road market could find themselves switching to 1X systems. In the MTB field it just seems unnecessary. What do you think?