R.I.P. Front Derailleur...

Well, its not exactly dead and gone...but it seems as though the front derailleur is becoming an endangered species lately. More and more rider's are choosing to drop their front mech from their rigs, and I can see why. You see, I'm a firm believer in the KISS principle. Keep It Simple, Stupid!

The concept of a 1x drive-train is not exactly new. Many free-ride/downhillers favor the simplicity of less gears and less chances of dropping a chain during rough descents. Aside from those benefits, it can reduce the weight of a bike since you're ditching the front mech, shifter, cable, and extra chain rings. There are still many people who use and like 2x and even 3x drive-trains and wouldn't dream of losing their front mech. I'm not knocking those who want a plethora of gears, but for my application, 1x10 works and keeps my rig simple and saves a little weight in the process.

So, my first steps for this frame-build is to get a crankset/BB....SRAM makes some trick spider-less cranks. Their X9 and up cranksets have 3 torx bolts holding their spider/chain ring setup to the spindle. You simply remove the 3 bolts, spider, rings, and then bolt up a new single ring chain ring of your choice (and tooth count). This goes along the same lines as the rest of rest of my setup...simple an clean.

What I've ended up with so far...is an X9 crankset with hollow forged crank arms and GXP bottom bracket. The plan is go to with a Wolftooth 30 tooth chain ring which they happen to make in a SRAM style direct-mount (remember the 3 torx bolts??). Also going to be purchasing X9 rear derailleur (type2 clutch) and X9 shifter to round out the group. I will try and update once I get more parts together. Thanks for reading!