Just in: Norco Threshold C Rival X1

Dave Atkinson wrote:

more on the gear range in the review. but i'd say as specced it's certainly more set up for racing than anything else, mudguard eyelets or no. to get anywhere near the range of a compact double you really need to be looking at the 10-40 cassette which requires an XD freehub. You could go up to a 36 on this with the wheels as supplied. 1x is undoubtedly better for racing UK-conditions 'cross though, as anyone that fought through the quagmire that was Middlemoor on Sunday will attest. Last thing you need is two chainrings and a front mech filling up with mud and grass...

I can excuse it on this bike as it specifally suits racing, my point was more a criticism of the X1 bikes in general.  You don't need the X1 to do 11-32, any groupset can handle that range.  If they're trying to save money (the big 10-42 costing £200+ and needing a compatible hub), at least an 11-36 would be a better choice for most of us buying bikes for multiple uses.

I actually have a 1x 11-32 on my commuter, but I've got a 39t on the front because I have to regularly pedal up Wimbledon hill (anyone that's done RideLondon knows the one I mean).

Edit: It's a shame editing a comment changes the order they appear, it can make a thread confusing. However, I just couldn't live with the fact that I confused pedal with peddle last night.

Dave Atkinson wrote:

but i'd say as specced it's certainly more set up for racing than anything else, mudguard eyelets or no. 

Well that settles that, then.

I definitely understand taller&tigher gears for out-and-out race bikes and single rings on dirt. I still think as with most CX race bikes that's too tight for anything but high-level CX racing, which may well be the point. I look forward to the review.

Dave Atkinson wrote:

I think you mean overgeared, not undergeared, by the way

Thanks for the clarification. I had thought that overgeared meant "too wide a gear range" and undergeared meant the opposite, as per:

David Arthur wrote:

The Zurigo is a lot of fun. It's agile, stable and pretty fast. It's sold with the wrong tyres, though. At the moment, with a knobbly 'cross tyre and compact road gearing, it's sending mixed messages. Change the tyres to a multipurpose design like the Panaracer GravelKing and you have a bike that is ideal for commuting and adding some dirt and gravel riding to your road riding; as a cyclo-cross race bike it's heavy and overgeared.

bikebot wrote:

Not that impressed with so many of the new Sram X1 bikes appearing with just an 11-32 cassette.

This is a cross bike, not a mountain bike. Believe it or not there are actually sacrificies associated with a bigger gear range.

samvegg wrote:

bikebot wrote:

Not that impressed with so many of the new Sram X1 bikes appearing with just an 11-32 cassette.

This is a cross bike, not a mountain bike. Believe it or not there are actually sacrificies associated with a bigger gear range.

It depends. For strict CX, the 42-32, which matches the 36/28 found on many CX race bikes seems apt. And as you stated, wider gearing carries its own issues.

But, I'll also agree with bikebot as I'm of the opinion most top-end bikes, particularly CX bikes, still come fairly undergeared for amateurs. Even at a fairly old-school get-up-and-grind cadence of 60rpm, you're going at about 10.22 km/h on a 35.6" gear, which on a 10% gradient should work out to about 3.4 W/kg on smooth tarmac - more than a bit more than that off-road. That would likely put many amateurs deep into the red on anything over a couple of minutes of steep climbing, particularly in the mud, particularly on a longish (for CX) hill like, say, the Koppenberg.

Not to mention that that the built-in compliance, endurance geometry and mudguard eyelets point to a bike not solely intended as an out-and-out CX-race bike. In which case, 42/32 again matches the same 36/28 many World-Tour professionals use for medium-to-high mountain stages. And which, to be fair, that also does seem to be found on many racier road bikes currently for sale. Exactly how that's not massively undergeared for weak-kneed amateurs going on training or "adventure" rides (particularly those on gravel or fire-roads where the path often pitches straight up instead of snaking around), however, is completely and utterly beyond me.