You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
I have a Whyte 809 currently running its original 3x10 setup. I'm looking at going 2x10 but having never really fiddled around with the drivetrain much before could do with some advice.
I was thinking new slx shifters, double chainset and front derailleur would do it. I can pick up the bits for a little bit shy of £150. Is it worthwhile or am I hopelessly deluded?
I went from 3x9 to 2x9 because I pretty much never used the top couple of gears and was changing between middle and big too much (it annoyed me!)
All I did was get a bigger middle ring and some shorter chainring bolts (and wind in the FD limit screw to only use 2 rings) - you only need to change the shifters if you change chainset and FD to be 2x10 specific.
Swapping out the middle ring and fitting shorter bolts (or a bash in place of the outer) might not work quite as well as a dedicated 2x10 setup, but it should work well enough that you can see if the 2x10 ratios are what you want.
Can be worthwhile in that it's reducing some complexity and maybe improving reliability. Being that 3x you sometimes need more fiddling to get the indexing right or keep it indexed for all three chainrings. 2x is just two front gears to get right. Though I found 2x10 may have bigger jumps between the two rings and shifting is a bit more clunky.
Possibly a weight saving, or maybe not. Depending on the 2x, you may be okay cross chaining (big ring to big ring), whereas it's not advised with 3x.
If you converted your existing 3x crank you can mount a bash on the front and then two chainrings behind. If you wanted a bash.
If you were going 3x9 to 2x10 then you'll probably get almost the same gears just with less front rings. 3x10 to 2x10 less so.
Have a play with a gear ratio calculator, like Sheldon's classic one and see what gears you get out of each set up http://sheldonbrown.com/gears/