In the interest of discussing the FD, I personally chose a gravel bike with a 2x setup when I bought my bike. In my case, I live in an area that has me on fairly mellow terrain (canal tow path) for a lot of my ride, with some small undulations mixed in. For that sort of riding, I find that having a smaller range cassette really is nice. I don't think it's absolutely necessary, but I do like the ability to sit in the 48t (on GRX 810) and shift back and forth between the mid-higher gears of the cassette for tighter control over cadence when grinding out miles. When I'm on singletrack, I just leave my bike in the 31T and ride it like it's a 1x bike.
March 22, 2022, 8:17 a.m. - Chad K
In the interest of discussing the FD, I personally chose a gravel bike with a 2x setup when I bought my bike. In my case, I live in an area that has me on fairly mellow terrain (canal tow path) for a lot of my ride, with some small undulations mixed in. For that sort of riding, I find that having a smaller range cassette really is nice. I don't think it's absolutely necessary, but I do like the ability to sit in the 48t (on GRX 810) and shift back and forth between the mid-higher gears of the cassette for tighter control over cadence when grinding out miles. When I'm on singletrack, I just leave my bike in the 31T and ride it like it's a 1x bike.