I think this is a RAD IDEA!! I am running 1 x 10 with 33T front chainring (with E13 XCX chain device), and 11-36T rear cassette, on my 29er http://ap1.pinkbike.org/p4pb7671928/p4pb7671928.jpg I rarely spin out (only on the road going to the trail head) but there are times, especially when the terrain is wet, where 33T x 36T is simply not low enough to climb very steep, technical terrain that is greasy, and I have to get off and push up the steeps :( in the dry, I can clean the majority of these same climbs, every time I am not a "casual rider" by any means, lots of power on tap and my previous AM bike with 2 x 9 let me up the same climbs every time, even in the wet! I would love to have a drivetrain with a wider range, specifically lower climbing gears as I really don't want to go back to a front derailleur and multiple chainrings ever again...

sorry dude.. ..not a case of not knowing how to use BB tools (have been wrenching since 1991, currently a workshop manager for a shop with multi-£million turnover...) but threaded BB is an old design left over from the days of road cycling have not "destroyed when you hammer it out" because we don't use a hammer to remove BB30 or PF30, we have specific tools for that application, perhaps you need to research that further.... have easily extracted PF30 cups without damage, replaced grauncy bearings and refitted without any damage to the cup or new bearings? did not mention loctite in my posts? why would you loctite PF30 BB?? speak to leading frame designers about the advantages of push-fit, and it might become a little clearer...

@WAKIdesigns and @valtra you both raise good points about the environmental issues what would be REALLY interesting would be a factory tour of the typical Asian bicycle plant, their manufacturing footprint / environmental waste and the conditions their workforce are employed under perhaps not the highest end manufacturers in Taiwan but an average plant in China, Vietnam, Cambodia turning up cheap bicycles I am not ignorant to pretend these are slaves working in tin sheds off a paddy field, but some honesty from the bike industry which manufacturers the bulk of its production off-shore in Asia, would be interesting.... Its something that has been raised with large corporations, supermarkets, clothes retailers and even Apple computers!

@ Protour agree with your comments, neither was a permanent solution, we ran Sachs New Success and Quartz rear mechs (our DH factory team was sponsored by Sachs) and we found that friends using the Bullet Bros with Shimano mechs, had a lot more problems than we did with our Sachs mechs we moved onto taking massive chainrings and grinding all the teeth off using an angle grinder to create 2 "sandwich" plates which would be bolted either side of the front single chain ring, to create a crude chain bash guard / chain keeper all kinds of experiments were going on back then!

@Protour PF30 has proven to work very well the increase in "stiffness" (resistance to flexure) that is talked about is a combination of the 30mm through axle on the crankset and more importantly the substantially larger diameter BB shell which allows the company to use larger diameter, thinner tubing in the bottom end of the frame (for lighter weight) whilst increasing frame stiffness in the bottom end As tube diameter increases, stiffness dramatically increases, the engineering rule of the thumb is "doubling a tube's diameter will increase the tube stiffness 16X", obviously moving to larger diameter tubing has its compromises with wall thicknesses vs. weight so you don't get buckling ("beer canning") tube failures in impacts Threaded bottom brackets have caused nothing but trouble since day one and are a left over from the old days of road cycling, you would not believe the bikes we get through our workshop with threaded BB's, seized threaded BB's, etc. BMX certainly has improved since moving to push-fit "Spanish" and "Mid-Size" bearing systems for the BB design, whereas the short-lived flirtation with the threaded euro shell was a disaster both in terms of bearing durability and frame damage Push fit tolerances do actually need to be good, otherwise problems result, especially for BB30 where the BB shell has a machined seat for the bearing, and even for PF30 where the delrin cups are isolating the bearings from the frame's BB shell, rather than taking up vague tolerances. The older, threaded BB systems do not allow the bearings to sit completely parallel, if you study the design, as the threads are angled which places unequal loads on the bearing system With push fit systems you can have parallel bearing alignment and easily adjustable preload, its a very very easy system to work on compared to traditional threaded BB shell with BB thread cutting and facing tools.