1x vs 2x Range and Weight Savings

All the cool kids are riding 1x setups these days and it makes sense for a lot of folks but I'm not yet ready to give up on 2X. I have been racing XC and many of the races have flat fire road sections where you would simply spin out on 1x. It's true you can go with a bigger ring in front but then you are going to suffer (maybe) on the climbs. Of course more powerful riders may not experience this situation so 1x just works for them.

Also it's important to note that with the Shimano 11-speed line, they have reduced the max difference in chainrings in 2x to 10 teeth, so you can have 26/36 or 28/38, but not 24/38 as they offered in the 10 speed lineup.

I did some research into the ranges that are possible with 1x vs 2x and 3x (Shimano only). In short, 2x10 offered 518% range, while 2x11 only offers 493%. With 1x11 it drops to 407%. There are some aftermarket options (OneUp 50T) that could get you to a 10x50 and maybe even 9x50, which would best 2x11. I didn't look at SRAM since the cassettes are OMG expensive.

Of course there's some weight loss to be had with 1x systems. I couldn't find any concrete numbers so I did a little bit of research and came up with:

XT Front Derailleur adds about 137 grams

XT Shifters are 237g, so subtract one to get 119g

Small chainring weight? I'm guessing 60g, maybe it's less

But 1x increases cassette weight: 11-36 (268g for 32) cassette vs 11-42 (433g) + ~60g

Total 255 + chainring - 60g. 

So I'm calling it just under ½ pound of weight savings for 1x (Shimano XT). XTR should be less

Lots of noise in this table but the number to focus on is the range in the far right column. I wasn't able to paste the column headers, the second from the right is the number of feet the bike travels per revolution of crank.

3x10	22	32	25.73	80.7922	4.63	555.37%
3x10	22	28	25.73	80.7922	5.29
3x10	32	11	25.73	80.7922	19.59
3x10	42	11	25.73	80.7922	25.71
2x10	24	36	28.68	90.0552	5.00	518.18%
2x10	24	32	28.68	90.0552	5.63
2x10	24	28	28.68	90.0552	6.43
2x10	24	11	28.68	90.0552	16.37
2x10	38	13	28.68	90.0552	21.94
2x10	38	11	28.68	90.0552	25.92
1x11	30	42	28.68	90.0552	5.36	407.27%
1x11	32	11	28.68	90.0552	21.83
1x11	32	50	28.68	90.0552	4.80	500.00%
1x11	32	10	28.68	90.0552	24.01
2x11	28	40	28.68	90.0552	5.25	493.51%
2x11	28	35	28.68	90.0552	6.00
2x11	38	11	28.68	90.0552	25.92