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currently got a shimano 105 2x11 setup but finding it annoying as i am usually at a speed that I am going between big and small ring so just end up cross chaining all the time
I have a 104 bcd triple crankset i can use so i am thinking of a narrow wide chainring but has anyone used them for a road bike and how many miles do you get out of it?
also does anyone use a normal chainring but with a double sided bash gaurd to hold chain on?
thanks
There was a thread about this pretty recently. If you're happy with the gear spread/spacing you end up with its perfectly possible. Narrow wide is fine. If you want a bigger cassette you're probably either looking at a goatlink or a tanpan to run a MTB rear mech.
I use a tanpan to make road shifters talk to an xt mech to shift a SRAM cassette, so odd combinations are definitely possible.
I've ran 105 1x10 and 1x11 no prob with a narrow wide on the road. You can go up to a 34 cassette on the back IME with just the normal 105 short cage der. Anything bigger needs a link / mod of some sort like swanny mentions to give the mech clearance over the block.
It wasn't the answer for me as I felt you lost too much on the top end, but obv it's personal to your terrain, style etc etc.
For at least the last 2 decades of the last century all we used for CX was a pair of 52 (because they were common) chain rings with the teeth ground off either side of the single ring. Keeps your legs cleaner as well. Fancy chain rings are not needed unless you are using silly cassettes that create too much slack in top.
Yes but those fancy chainrings are very effective, less ugly, less faff than a chain guard and not expensive. So a pretty good solution all round.
However OP, before going to a single ring, why not try downsizing the big chainring? Assuming you're using a standard 50t, you could drop to a 46 or 44 and lose a bit of top end but be able to spend more time on the big ring before you drop down.
A 1x11 usually means compromising your higher gears and a 40 or 42 would be a typical choice for a single ring.