 If you've just landed on this channel this is where I do weekly cycling videos both inspirational and entertaining cycling stories and I do absolutely through over a deep dive road bike review or in this case we've got the bike elevated slightly and my left leg is out so we can make way for the SRAM Force 1x with a quark power meter sitting right there. So I thought I would move this review out onto the road a couple of reasons. Number one is I had a really shit one in front of the camera yesterday I was poor form and number two I started to think about it and doing this review out on the road makes a lot of sense because I think a lot of people have some preconceived ideas I did anyway that you can't ride a 1x system on hilly terrain and look I'm about to hit a 5 minute climb and I'm going to ride this 1x system on hilly terrain today and I'm going to link to the ride below so you can all check it out. For reference below me I've got a 1x drivetrain which means there's one single chain ring at the front and an 1132 on the rear I'm using force quark power meter now you can get 1x in all the main road group sets these days SRAM started off in mountain and then sort of migrated to cyclocross and then also to gravel and roads been since sort of 2017 and the thing about this group set below me is a lot of people have an idea that you can't get the same gear range with a 1x system and that's not actually true now GCN did a really good video on this topic so I'm going to link to that below but really the main thing that we're going to be talking about today is the variation between gears which I'll explain shortly so I just polished off that hill it's about a 4 or 5% gradient 5 minutes still had three gears to spare and look for this review what I thought I would do because I rode 2x for 10 years almost before I've switched now to a 1x system let's do a 2x system versus a 1x system and let's break it into four parts the pros of each system the cons of each system thirdly my riding experiences with the 1x and lastly we'll conclude with which system I think is best and why so before we go deep on those four points a couple little stories are going to add good context to this review and I just want to point out up front here I have a little bit of trouble personally pronouncing SRAM I tend to use SRAM instead so if that comes across I just wanted to point it out don't need to do it so the first little story is an engineering consulting firm was engaged by SRAM a number of years ago to do an assessment on all their products and this firm they don't do the cycling industry they're across all industries aero space mechanical engineering and after doing their assessment they said regarding the drivetrain to have an object being the chain derailing sort of midair and that system sort of relinquishing its control over that object being the train is bad engineering practices which makes a lot of sense right we've all been at the side of the road pulling the chain back on in the front chain ring and we've seen in the Tour de France at a really inappropriate time chains coming off so you know it's probably a core reason I would say maybe the number one reason why SRAM decided to start making one-by-systems mountain cycle cross and now road so the second little story there's irony at play here a pro continental cycling team team Aqua blue 2018 they rode these 3 t-roh bikes that would only enable a one-by-system you couldn't put a front derailleur on them and they were designed with efficiency gains in mind right aerodynamic short seat stay etc and as a result team Aqua blue in 2018 were the first professional cycling team to ride one-by during their race season now the thing that came into play here was they actually had issues their chains came off during races and it was highly publicised at the time and the thing is I've done a bit of investigating here what I understand is that that team they didn't use the whole complete SRAM one-by-system they use their own sort of custom parts in certain areas such as a rear cassette which from my understanding may have gone out of either the gear variation or gear range that is advised by SRAM and as a result they've had some issues with chains coming off and I feel like it's kind of like if you buy a car from a car manufacturer and you go on the engine you change your valves and the pistons and then the engine stops working it's pretty hard to blame the manufacturer so the pros and the cons let's talk about the pros first and let's start with the two-by system and I'm gonna do this on a two-by bike so the pros of a two-by system I'm now in Adelaide beautiful city about to hit up the hills and riding a Cervelo S5 I'm going to be reviewing this bike later on this channel and on this bike there is SRAM e-tap two-by system it's a 52 36 front 1128 on the rear so the benefits the two pros that I want to talk about is one there's going to be as I hit the hills particularly here less jumping between each gear so as the terrain changes I'm going to be pretty confident I'm going to be finding a comfortable gear no matter what and number two you know I could ride this bike in a fast bunch ride crit racing and then I can also smash the hills and not be too concerned so the practicality of having a larger gear range on this bike versus a one-by system is another pro so the pros of a one-by system they're pretty compelling I reckon there's four of them there might be more you let me know below number one is it's lighter look how much is up for debate I've read online 150 grams but it wasn't comparing it to anything but when you think about it there's one front chain ring so you don't have two there's no chain guide and there's no derailleur so clearly it's going to be lighter second of all it must be more aerodynamic surely number three it's definitely quieter you don't get chain rub slap there's just not much noise happening back there and the fourth one my personal favorite is the gear changing is ever so reliable smooth it's efficient I haven't had one issue whatsoever and you think about obviously you've got SRAM's rear clutch system but you've also got a narrow tooth wide tooth chain ring and a different chain which makes the efficiency of the chain so much more reliable and in my opinion a lot better so the cons of a two-by system I'm in the Adelaide Hills now if you can't tell by my breath and I'm enjoying being the little ring to be honest but as the bike slowed down I've noticed something there's definitely more noise happening down there which proves a couple of things one is a two-by system is noisier and it requires more maintenance looking down at it as well it's definitely less aerodynamic but obviously weighs more and lastly the gear changing it's not snappy and that almost perfect gear change you get with a one-by system so the cons of a one-by system as a general rule of thumb you're going to have a bigger jump in between each gear and number two if you want the flexibility of having a fast bunch riding or criterion bike and also have a bike that you can take on some major hill climbs then in order to do that on a one-by system you're going to need to change your front chain ring and your rear cassette and some might find that a little frustrating so my riding experiences with the one-by I got back from Adelaide a couple of days ago where I was riding a two-by as you know picked up the one-by this morning and I've actually done some hill repeats on this bike this morning so I'll link to that right below but going from a two-by back to a one-by really makes you appreciate the pros of a one-by system that I've talked about earlier in this video and I think that's a quick and easy way to sum up my riding experiences it's been more reliable it's been quieter and to me more aesthetically pleasing so I think for anyone out there if you're thinking about a one-by system really it comes down to having a good think about the type of riding you're doing and selecting the right ratios because if you do that you're going to have a great experience with one-by