Removing the front derailleur on trail bikes and replacing it with a chain guide and single ring set up is nothing new and something riders have been doing it for years, making do with a regular 12-34 9 speed cassette and some good old muscle power and grunt to get you back up the hill. So what are the advantages of a single ring trail bike? Well, that depends on you the rider and how and where you ride your bike. If your coming from a downhill background, such as myself, then there’s a good chance you don’t like front derailleurs and you probably love the simplicity of a nice chainguide matched to a single shifter on your bars. I also like the security of knowing I’m not potentially going to loose my chain while riding inappropriately and generally enjoy my riding when I can focus on the job at hand.

Llandegla trails, N.Wales – keeping it low, pulling a funny face and no chance of loosing my chain and with no need to push up either, what’s not to like? The ten speed set up is pretty sweet and one that it is getting increasingly popular, and for good reason too – it works!

There’s no denying that a single ring set up makes for a far cleaner and simple looking drivetrain, especially compared to another moving part that only lets your chain fall off when the fun kicks in – but is this set up right for you? Only you can decide and at the end of the day, if your current set up is working, wait until it’s worn out before taking the jump as you will need a few bits to make this set up work in your interest.

The main downside to all this single ring malarkey is when were going up, which isn’t fun at the best of times and we must be suckers for making life hard on ourselves for loosing the one thing which helped us get up there easier. So what’s the best course of action? Getting a bigger cassette and biting the ten speed bullet is so far the best option and with cheaper ten speed parts trickling through the groupsets, 2011 marks the year the average guy or girl looking to go ten speed can do so without re-mortgaging the house. But why ten speed I hear you say? It’s all about those extra 2 teeth on the dinner plate 12-36 option over the usual 12-34 9 speed, which is the true holy grail to ascending on a single ring bike and the only option to consider if your thinking about going one by ten!

Going One by Ten.

The trusty Specialized Pitch was going to be the guinea pig on this review and an ideal candidate – I already had a good chainguide and single ring at hand and all that was left was a good shifter, chain, a short cage derailleur and 12-36 cassette. With choosing the main ingredients for the set up, I knew that going crazy wasn’t the way to go, especially on the Pitch and a sensible budget would make for a more interesting review. Since XX is no longer the only option for ten speed and with both Sram and Shimano having a good selection of equally good parts on offer at similar prices, it does as ever come down to personal preference. Looking at the different choices on offer, this is what I went for  –

PG1070 Cassette, 12 -36 – 370 grams –  £75GBP. Technically an X9 part – it’s only £10 more than the PG1050 X7 Cassette and with a marginally better manufacturing quality and a slight reduction in weight plus the nifty polished finish helped seal the deal.

X7 Rear Derailleur, Carbon Storm Grey, Short Cage – 225 grams – £75GBP. For X7, this derailleur looks and feels pretty damn amazing and not to mention the nice short cage option – and yes, all short cage Sram derailleurs are designed to work with the 12-36 ratio cassette! The finish of this things looks almost XO from a few years back and definitely something I’m pretty stoked on.

PC1031 Ten Speed Chain – £33. Chains are chains until you spend silly money and I’ve always been impressed with mid to low range Sram chains over the years and so far this has proved flawless. This is also Sram’s cheapest ten speed chain, although at £33 it’s still not cheap as far as chains go.

X7 Shifter, R/H 10 speed – 150 grams – £44GBP. The shifter, like the rear derailleur, is an impressive piece of kit and wouldn’t look out of place on bike worth a few thousand. The Storm Grey colour scheme definitely helps with overall appearance and something which Sram has taken seriously with all of their 2011 groupsets – at the end of the day, we might as well have bike parts that look as good as they work.

Neat clamp, but you can also run a Match Maker on the X7 Shifter if you want to too and get your cock pit that little bit neater. Going from the stock X5 shifter to the new X7 has been a revelation with crisp, smooth shifting across all 10 of those gears.

Good looking derailleur isn’t it? The short cage option is aimed at the DH market, but after a chat with a Sram technician, the short cage option sounded ideal for my go anywhere, do anything bike. It’s also super neat and offers that little extra clearance from the trail. Check the carbon and the sweet jockey wheels – and this is X7!

The Specialized Pitch has been my long term test bike since the end of September last year and is gradually becoming everything that it wanted to be. With some dependable Hope Hoops, a Renthal cockpit and bars, E13 guide, comfy WTB saddle, DMR Vault pedals and now the 1 x 10 gearing, it’s proving to be a real contender. What next? The rear shock is crying out for a service and the rear brake needs bleeding, but other than that it’s a solid bike. I’d definitely like to get an ‘on the fly’ adjustable post over the coming months, but we’ll have to wait and see which gets the nod.

Conclusion.

Trail riding and riding my trail bike pretty much everywhere, has become the staple source of my riding over the winter months and something which I enjoy considerably. Of all the awesome parts that have been added to the Pitch over the last few months since Factory Jackson’s inception, the ten speed set up is the one that has dramatically increased the bikes ability and helped show it’s true pedigree.

Ultimately, if your intent on going ten speed, you won’t look back and your only going to miss that front derailleur and silly sized chain rings on the kind of climbs you’d just as quickly push up. If like me you like the occasional mini DH session on your trail bike and certainly like to interpret the trail as you see fit, having a chain devise is the only way to go and going down the ten speed, 12-36 route is the only one way that will help you get back to the top for another rip down without busting a gut.

All the parts selected here came to a total of £227 RRP – all in all, this isn’t an expensive upgrade, but it is one that might be best left when a worn set up is on it’s way out and your looking to make the jump as you’ll also need a good chainguide and possibly a suitable chainring too, so costs can mount. If your building up a bike from scratch, or looking to upgrade, then I’d definitely consider what the X7 parts have to offer and when combined with a capable chain guide, your looking at a pretty good ten speed set up that will last and keep you grinning loop after loop. Happy trails!

Sram is exclusively distributed in the UK by Fisher Outdoor Leisure and if you want to know more about the parts reviewed here, hit the big red logo! Happy trails.

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