re: #440 goddamnedfrank

It’s still weird to me how almost ubiquitous the 1X drivetrains have gotten on mountain bikes. I mean, I get it, the expanded rear ranges are so good now that I never shift into the small front on my road bike and I climb a fairly steep grade every day, but it’s still just feels odd. I was looking at the Specialized cross country lineup and only the most entry level bikes have a second front, everything above $750 is running a single. Whereas twenty years ago everything came with triples.

I’ve had a lot of people tell me front derailleurs are too difficult to make operational. I think riders are trying to treat them like rear derailleurs, which have become very forgiving of operator lack of finesse. When the big one in back looks like a pie plate, the rear derailleur gets weird.

I’m an old bike mechanic. I can work on old bikes. And I can bend any front derailleur into submission.