The first thing I wanted to get right before even looking at what was available was my gear selection.

I currently run a 34-50 chainset and 11-32 cassette. This gives me a great range of gears with a nice low gear gear to tackle a few hills.

The only problem was that on my rides I’ll be on more than a few hills. Last year I cycled the Innisfree 400. By the end of it I was begging for more gears.

So I wanted a lower gear. When I looked at the 1x setups I could see that a lower gear was achievable but my highest gear was working out too low as well.

I would be spinning like mad to try to keep the momentum going that you get from a downhill section. I like to be able to pedal at about 80 – 90 rpm when riding down hill at about 40 – 50 k/h.

This was when I was in my current 50 chainring and 11 cassette. This is what made my first decision which was to go for a 2x system and that I would be running a 34 – 50 chainset.

I chose an Ultegra FC-R8000 chainset partly because they look cool but mainly because I was able to get them with a 165mm crank length.

I would have loved to have bought the entire GRX groupset which is a cross between a road and a mountain bike groupset. It would have saved me lots of time and money.

The thing that stopped me was that they didn’t sell a 165 crank arm length. I really wanted to reduce any area that could promote injury. Seeing as I’m 5ft 7 this is one area that could have a significant effect. 

I would have to make up my own system so I decided to have a bit of fun with it.

I stuck with Ultegra for my front derailleur as its light and for its precise shifting.

For my rear cassette I decided to go big. 11- 40 tooth big.

This is well into mountain bike territory so I had to buy a mountain bike rear derailleur to achieve the gear differential.

I chose the a long cage XTR rear derailleur. It was the only derailleur that could cope with the 50 – 40 to 34 – 11 gear differential.

Next were the levers. I had already decided on hydraulic brakes and I needed a 2x 11 system. I have used 105 levers for years and they have served me well but I wanted just a little more luxury and my budget just about covered going for Ultegra levers and brake calipers. They offer better braking control and a crisper gear change.

I thought that the brakes came attached to the levers and already bled. No matter though, I’ll just have to bleed them when I get them installed.

This also has the added benefit of being able to shorten the lines before bleeding them with hydraulic fluid. Whe breaking systems come already bled they are often longer than you need.

I decided to go for Ultegra Ice tech rotors as well for their cooling abilities but more for the fact that they look amazing. 160mm front and bake just to make those long descents that little bit easier.

The only issue with this so far was that I was running a road gear lever with a mountain bike rear derailleur. Mountain bike and road levers use different indexing limits within their levers.

This means that when you change gear on a road lever the cable won’t move the same distance as when you change gear on a mountain bike lever.

Fortunately, there is a work around which comes in the form of a pulley that you place in the line. Jtek makes the pulley and all you do is wrap the cable around it and it changes the pull amount before it gets to the rear derailleur.

I really wanted to go for a ceramic speed bottom bracket but it was just too expensive for me right now. It’s not the fact that the cranks would spin more freely, which would be negligible, but it was the fact that it would last up to ten times longer that a standard bottom bracket.

Don’t get me wrong, Shimano offer great components but steel bearing will wear out much faster than ceramic bearings.

As for my pedal selection I’m staying with mountain bike shoes so it’s obviously a mountain bike pedal. Shimano makes great pedals with XTR being the top of the range. I decided to go for the XT modal as they’re more robust even if they are a little heavier. 

For the chain a got a super narrow 105 shimano 11 speed.

Although there is a barrel adjustment on my rear derailleur I decide to use one on each cable as they are easily accessible under the downtube of my frame. I got a set of Ritchey barrel adjusters that will work perfectly.