I put a gravel drivetrain on a road race bike: one chainring, 13 gears, no front shifting. The whole reason I wanted to build a 2026 Cannondale SuperSix Evo Gen 5 this way was to answer a single question — what do you actually give up going 1x on the road? Going in I assumed the answer was “a lot.” It turned out to be a lot less than I expected.

Here’s the full build, from the frame up:

Watch on YouTube: Cannondale SuperSix Evo 2026 Build — 13-Speed SRAM Force XPLR 1x

The part that surprised me was the gearing, so I put real numbers to it instead of guessing. Total range on this 10-46 XPLR cassette works out to about 460% — actually a touch more than the 2x setup most people run, and that’s without a second chainring or a front derailleur. Then I laid it next to a standard 10-36 road cassette, cog for cog: 11 of the 13 gears are identical, same teeth and spacing from the 10 all the way up to the 32. The only real difference is the top, where a road cassette ends on a 36 and XPLR gives me a 38 and a 46 instead — my climbing bailouts. So through the flat and rolling range where I actually spend my time, the steps are exactly a road bike’s. I only feel the bigger jumps in the last two cogs.

A couple of things make this build possible. The 13-speed rear derailleur only mounts to a UDH frame, so the dropout standard is what unlocks the whole thing. And the SuperSix uses Cannondale’s Delta steerer with its own headset spacers, which doesn’t line up with the Vision Metron 5D EVO cockpit I wanted to run. The one custom part on the bike is a 3D-printed adapter I made to bridge the Delta spacers to the Vision stem while still routing the hoses cleanly.

I’ll be honest about the drivetrain, because it’s the interesting part. SRAM’s new Full Mount derailleur bolts straight to the UDH interface — no separate hanger — and a rotation step replaces the old B-tension adjustment. I got the setup cog wrong the first time (it’s the 21T, sixth from the top, and I counted from the bottom), which threw off my shifting until I sorted it. Even dialed in properly, it’s good but not perfect: I still get a little rub on the second cog from the top. My read is that this is a gravel system on a road frame — XPLR is built around the longer chainstays you find on gravel bikes, and the SuperSix’s 410mm stays put a sharper chain angle on the extreme gears. I’ve got it shifting well and I’ll keep refining it.

One unexpected win: the non-Hi-MOD frame came in at 15 lb 15 oz with pedals. That’s genuinely light for a mid-level Force build, and some of it is the 1x itself — dropping the front derailleur and second ring saves real weight up front.

The build

Everything I used, with links. The complete list — sealant, rotors, and the rest — is in the video description.

  • Frame: 2026 Cannondale SuperSix Evo 5, complete bike (standard modulus, matches my build) — link. Frame-only Hi-MOD option, higher-grade carbon — link
  • Rear derailleur: SRAM Force AXS XPLR, UDH Full Mount, 13-speed — link
  • Shifters + brakes: SRAM Force AXS Upgrade Kit (levers + flat-mount calipers) — link
  • Cassette: SRAM XG-1371 XPLR 10-46, 13-speed (XDR driver) — link
  • Crankset: SRAM Force 1x Aero power meter, 170mm, 46T — link
  • Chain: SRAM Force 12/13-speed Flattop, 126L — link
  • Wheels: Zipp 454 NSW — front, rear (XDR driver)
  • Tires: Continental Archetype 700x30 tubeless — link
  • Cockpit: Vision Metron 5D EVO integrated bar/stem, 120mm x 40cm

So is 1x worth it on a road bike? After building it up and getting a few rides in, I’m convinced this is where road bikes are heading. On the road I’m giving up almost nothing — the gearing feels like a normal 2x, there’s one less thing up front to fail, and the bike is as clean as I could make it. The shifting could still be sharper, and I’ll keep at it. The real test comes when I get into proper climbing, up in the big cogs where the jumps widen — that’s when I’ll know whether I miss the tighter steps or forget the front derailleur was ever there. So tell me in the comments: does the road front derailleur go the way of the mountain bike’s, or is it here to stay?