Here’s a bit of a shot across the bow from Shimano. They sat down with Nico Lau to find out why he still runs 2×11 in the Enduro World Series.
His answer: “I am biker, not hiker. 2×11 allows you the benefit to save with an easy gear, warm up your body and when you are finally warm you are just able to smash it.”
Of course, you can get easy gears on a 1x set up, but it seems Nico prefers his 28×40 for grinding up the climbs. It’s worth saying that Shimano has also uploaded a video from Julien Absalon explaining his choice to run 1x, you can watch that here.