My 29er needs a drivetrain overhaul, chain/casset/chainrings. Right now its a 42/32/24 tripple on a 11-36.
I’m considering putting a 1x10 on it. 32 up front, 11-36 on the back. I’ll put an expander if i hate myself later.
Question, for narrow / wide chain rings, do I need a special chain?
no special chain required
My front ring is a t30 and I could have gotten by with a 11-36.
Not sure what the 29er vs 26er does for the gearing.
Assuming 2.35" tires the gear inches will increase by 9.3% with the 29er vs 26er and the same cogset / ring. So a 30T ring on the 26er would translate into about a 27T ring on a 29er. I would lean towards something a lot smaller than 32T to be honest, unless you are not climbing. I would maybe go with a 24T since that would give you 30km/h @ 100rpm in the 11T in case you need to ride a considerable distance on the road. I don’t think you would need a bigger gear than that unless you are racing and you are very fast.
At AHC '15 I was climbing in the 22 x 34 on my 26er and that wasn’t easy. I passed a lot of people despite riding in my lowest gear. They were walking.
EDIT: Having said that, I didn’t consider BCD in my calculation. Perhaps the smallest you can use is like a 30T? I don’t know.
I’ve had a narrow/wide ring and clutch derailleur for the last two seasons. No dropped chains and it’s super quiet. Change your chain once its worn and the rest of the drive train should last several seasons. Buy a kmc masterlink and never deal with shitty shimano pins again.
I personally run a 32T up front on a 29er, but also know riders with 30T who like the better climbing gear it provides.
1x10 with a 40T or 42T expander cog is hard to beat when it comes to price/performance/simplicity.
One up components and wolftooth both only go as low as 30t for 104bcd.
This is going on my “non-trail” bike, ie the one that I tow the kids in, ride around Keji , adventuring. Not really Wranging up whopper etc. So I think 32 or 30 should workout. It’ll be an experiment. or something 
I also don’t have a clutch rear mec, so we’ll see how it goes first.
@TheWindSucker I just put on a Wolftooth elliptical chainring on my bike and would highly suggest one. It’s not a night and day difference, but it is noticeable, allowing you to run a harder gear and definitely helps with climbing
I’m sure once I get to try it out on some technical climbs it will really shine. Definitely worth the extra $5 or whatever it is over a round wolftooth narrow wide.
I had already ordered it right after you posted :). Parts show up tomorrow. Wewt.
Parts are in. Installed. So far so good. Using a non clutched XT deraillure and so far it works fine. I hit some really bumpy shit and chain didn’t go anywhere.
30t front, 11-36t in back. It would be a bitch to climb really technical stuff with it but its fine for logging roads. As for high range I can go “fast enough”. Its my gravel road explorer bike and for the simplicity and reliability it does exactly what I want.
OH and I got a SLX cassette so far as I know I can’t take off the largest cog and replace it with that big red thing JeffV has. So i’ll get stronger and live with it.
I’ll correct my self. Looks like to make room for a oneup, i remove the 17toother.
I’m quite sure Jeff has an SLX cassette as well. You have to cut the rivets that hold the smaller cogs together in order to remove the 15T or 17T cog.
Yeah, nothing major. I’ll see how long I go with the stock cassette before i go bonkers.
Does anyone else have any other input on a conversion like this?
I am running a double ring crank up front at 22/32 with an 11/34 9 speed cassette. I am going to order an elliptical 32 from wolftooth but don’t have any idea what size expander I should consider or how easily the chain will shift from a 34 to lets say a 40.
I have had not issues shifting between the 36T and my 42t from Wolftooth.
Note, the B screw needs to be lengthened (which usually comes in the kit) and I needed to remove some material from my SLX derailleur as it was interfering with the 42T sprocket.