I have just acquired a new gravel hipster tourer ATB thing and would like to get some super easy gears on it for towing a BOB trailer. I’ve recently discovered that middleburn offer an ‘incy’ (lol) spider which can take a 22t ring. I’d be quite happy with 26 or 28 with a 40t big ring but has anyone done this successfully and have any tips / advice for me please?

I have two rear mechs that could cover 8,9 or 10 speed but am not sure what front mech I would need to cover that sort of gap in front rings.

Thanks

Tom

My set up for a while has been an XT chainset (FC-M785) with 40/28 rings.
I've tried various combinations of drop bar shifters and road front mechs, including an old XT, and Claris and Tiagra mechs with a Jtek offset shim* to account for the wider chainline. Currently running GRX400 shifters and mech with no shim needed, it seems pretty happy. Cassette is 10spd 11-36 which gets me up most stuff in the Peak.


*https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/gear-spares ... hed-split/

Shimano bar end shifters can be had for 8 or 9 speed.

I had one of those incy spiders on my krampus years ago running 20/32 with 11-34 out back. It would get you up the side of a house!

This frame is 68mm bb so ideally I’d want a road crank for Q factor optimisation. My wife has an xt double with a 28t small ring I could probably steal though…..

I was thinking blingy Middleburn rs4…

I've done 42/29 with a Shimano CX70 front mech and both Middleburn R02 with a 94bcd spider and on Sugino OX901 cranks.

Both cranks have their quirks, shifting was ok with friction up front. Mostly running 1x now as the jump between chainrings always felt like a lot when changing down.

My set up for a while has been an XT chainset (FC-M785) with 40/28 rings.

Ditto. A good combo ime. 28-42 would be ideal I think.

I've also got 10speed xt chainset on my gravely bike with 42 / 28chainrings.

That has a 68mm shell and I use one of the non-series cx70 mechs Shimano made for cyclo-cross setups. 105 10speed brifters and an xt 9speed rear derailleur on a 11-36 cassette.

All runs nicely.

Seems crazy to me that a number of us still use a mashup of 9/10S road and MTB parts and we can't get that system working from current Shimano or SRAM parts. GRX has been out for years and still doesn't cover the needs of what I'd call an all-round all-terrain drop bar bike. Cues will get close though, in time. I've only been waiting since about 2008 : )

(I know 1x can cover it in some ways but I don't want 1x .. )

+1 for the cx70 front mech. I use this with my 10 speed 2x Gevenalle setup with a long SLX mech, 11-36 cassette, and Praxis crank with sub-compact chainrings.

I’ve had good results on my Fairlight with a GRX 600 crankset and GRX800 front mech with some 5700 10 speed shifters and an XTR M952 (I know!) rear mech on an 11-36 rear cassette.

This gives me 30/36 as a granny gear. Good enough for hilly rides unloaded but not quite enough with a full touring load.

Old XT double with 24 or 26 and 38or 40. Not low enough loaded up, and 38 and 40 rings are getting expensive. A lot of pushing on the French gravel divide. Doing it in reverse , it's been a mix of Velo3 VTT traverse of the Pyrenees and the VTT traverse of the Basque country. The Basque section is wild . With single ruling them all in the new stuff doubles could disappear along with triples .