Can I swap my front 2x chainring on my MTB to a ~46T chainring? The type of cycling I do means I'm never really presented with mega-steep climbs.
I used an online calculator and worked out I never really use gear ratios below about 39, which on my MTB at the moment is gear 1 at the front and 6 at the back.
I was thinking about going for a really large chainring at the front and removing the front mech.
If I were to use a 46T chainring, this would give me a minimum gear ratio of 36.5 in the lowest gear, and 112.9 in the highest gear, which is much more appealing for me, as opposed to my current max gear ratio of 88.4.
Currently my bike has a 11-34T cassette at the rear and a 36-22T double chainring at the front.
I want to know if this would be possible. I am prepared to replace the cranks as my bike has a very low end Prowheel crankset on it at the moment. I have read a bit on this site and have seen that potential problems could revolve around the rear derailleur not being able to handle the longer chain I will be needed if I were to do this.
Is this possible? Thanks a lot
It is possible to do a 2x to 1x conversion but as stated in other answers you generally need to do something to keep the chain on the chainring. Generally a narrow-wide chainring is used on 1x setups to retain the chain. Leaving the derailleur in can also accomplish this.
Re-using a double crank with a single biases the chainring to one side, ending up with unavoidable cross chaining. I’ve heard special rings that offset the teeth are available.
If you want a chainring larger than your current one you may run into chainring-chainstay clearance issues, especially on a bike designed for small rings such as yours. A significantly larger ring (46 instead of 36 in your case) is very likely to have clearance issues.