Death of the front derailleur?

Is it just me, or does the front derailleur seem to be dying a slow death in mountain biking?

At first we ditched the big ring in favour of a bashgueard/god-ring. Next it was the smaller ring for DH being replaced with a chainguide. Now you see more and more all mountain bikes with one ring and lightweight chainguides.

Even the 3-ring holdouts in XC are starting to see the light as SRAM switches to a dual ring setup and some racers are going even further and just running a single ring up front (and a light guide I believe). Geoff Kabush recently won Bromont with a setup like this.

Is there really any point anymore? With a well chosen front ring and a wide ranging cassette in the back, why would you want the extra complications of another shifter and derailleur?

When I built up my bike, I insisted on a FD and a granny ring. My next bike will be a 1x9 setup for sure. I'm not alone in this I think. Add to this the emergence of the Hammerschmitt and yeah, I think the FD is on the decline - at least around here.

I can't see any time soon where I will be ditching my front D. I think the thing that will finally kill the front derailleur for me, will be a light, reliable, affordablr gear box that covers a 2:3 up to a 4:1 range in about 14 steps. Like a Rohloff, but not heavy and as pricey.

Since there isn't a real demand for that, then I can't see it happening any time soon.

Only works on flat climbs.

Go ride the epic day three from the Four Jacks race in Whistler and you'll be begging for a granny gear. Unless you want to walk/run for a long portion of the ride.

I'm running a 1x9 on my bike that I built up a couple months ago. It is working for me so far. 32 tooth up front, 11-34 rear.

I've been fine climbing all but the steepest hills. At the moment i'm just spinning out when I'm at the limits of my comfort level too. I think it's worth it for the lack of dropped chains, this is on a 6.5" rear 7" front bike mind you.

ps: my climbing is typically spinning up fire roads mind you.

Front D will never die as long as there are un-fit riders, and epic rides to go on.

But I could see 2x9 with 11-3x cassettes becoming the norm some day (but not soon).

I'm down to one front ring on all my bikes but I still use a locked front derailler as a guide on my 1x9 xc bikes because I'm too cheap to buy one of these:

I haven't used a front D for quite some time but I also have not been on many epics lately.

This is something I was mulling over now that I am thinking about a lighter bike for more allmountain/epic rides.

For sure I won't be putting a big ring on it but I wasn't sure about the front D. I haven't been on many rides where having the front D would have made much difference. I ride as far as I can up the trail but at some point I end up walking.

On an access road the middle always seems to be enough and granny doesn't seem to buy much.

on a dedicated dh/shuttle bike i don't see a reason to run a front deraileur. on a xc or am bike tho imo it has to be there. i know there's a lot of stuff i like to climb that wouldn't happen if i didn't have that granny in the front - like on our ride yesterday on burke.

Why limit yourself, unless the terrain you are riding is so limited?
I want to go anywhere, do anything.
No granny makes sense for racing - it's quicker to run/it's lighter.

Are you a racer or a rider? Personally, my next All Mountain bike won't be rolling without Hammerschmidt. That should be the death of the front der.

All hail the death of the front der, but let's not piss on granny gears grave just yet.

I run a 1x9 on my bike (LT hardtail) and it gets me up most stuff but do sometimes wish i'd kept the granny. I do fancy sticking a hammerschmidt thing on if they come down in price a bit.

Personally, my next All Mountain bike won't be rolling without Hammerschmidt. That should be the death of the front der.

I constantly use the front derailleur on my All-Mtn (Devinci Hectik Ltd.) for technical climbs, and its lighter, considerably cheaper and lets me use the superior Shimano Hollowtech 2 cranksets, which Hammerschitznel does not

I'm a big fan of SRAM, Avid and Rockshox, but Truvativ generally blows…mainly in the crankset and bottom bracket dept.

Hammerschmidt is a solution to a problem that DOES not exist - there is no problem with 2 x 9 and a good dual ring chaindevice and Shimano XT front mech

if only SRAM / Truvativ had concentrated their mighty resources (chequebook) on the rear derailleur "problem" in mountain biking, then we'd have an awesome solution to a real world problem, but their business profits would take a big dive because we wouldn't be constantly trashing and buying new drivetrains ;)

I'm really into that neew SRAM XX 10 speed group, mainly because of the huge spread on the cassette (11-36t). I'm a squid next to those xc guys and I could even see myself running a 36t single front ring on a dedicated xc race bike. That would be rad.

I am running a 27X40 Rotor Agilis crank and q rings at the moment. It's fine for all the climbs I do on the shore but I must confess to walking a couple bits of Flank yesterday on the way up to High Society. That kind of climb for me anyway left me wanting a lower gear. And that's on a 26 pound bike with really light wheels. Might go crank shopping soon.

What I find lacking though is gear selection for cranks. How often does anyone here really spin out a 44 X 12 or 11? And I don't really need a 22. I would love to be able to ride a 24x30x40 or something like that.