I gots 41mm fatty rumpkins on my 650B flatbar townie, bigger wheel OD than JLN will have, spend most of my time in the 46 (IIRC, stock FC-M730) with a 12-28 cassette.
It’ll carry his PBRs just fine.
BTW, don’t go long cage unless you’re planning a triple later, you don’t need to take up that much chain with a 1x or 2x. A medium cage is enough and have the parallelogram profile to work with the 32T rear.
I sense just a tiny wee bit of patronizing going on in this thread. Can’t JLN try something for himself?
I’m all for listening to experience, but also experimenting = fun; trying = learning
Take it up with JLN, he asked the question.
BTW JLN, offer stands to mail you those shimano 3x7 lever-triggers/slick tyres/rear mech/fleegles for cheaps if you need em instead of ax x4 setup.
Fair point.
If you can save yourself what could be a couple of hours of hassle for the sake of asking a question, wouldn’t you?
Totally. Some of the earlier banter made me cringe a bit, that’s all.
Thanks for all the responses.
The reasons why I asked about the chainring was more so running a 1x whatever set up on a ring that is technically made for a double ring. I have been running a 1x7 on an old Shimano ring perfectly fine on the #cannondalerack. I wasn’t too concerned about ratios. I’m not going to be smashing this as fast as I can.
As for using knobbies with an 8 speed MTB cassette, plus the 36t or 40t rings, it’s because it’s what I have already. Later down the track I may change this.
Also Blakey, do X4 come in anything other than long cage?
Welcome to FOA.
They did, maybe they’re not anymore. Perhaps an ebay closeout special?
Check: Specs–>Cage Sizes.
https://www.sram.com/sram/mountain/products/sram-x4-rear-derailleur
Are you taking the shifter from the cannondale or buying new? If dale, an 8sp cassette to suit your cannondale’s (x3?) road mech is cheaper than buying an X4 rear mech. Plus you’ll have a new cassette to mesh with your new chain.
I was just going to buy new. The c-rack has 7speed X3 on it.
X3/X4 are both 7/8 speed and interchangeable as far as I can tell.
User Shakes has a set of 8sp lever/triggers, I can collect and post along with a free STX mech (long cage 
)
Might even have 1x cruddy vee brake for you too.
WHat Zoltan said
Also: see what happens when I “tried out” something similar
TBH I did post mostly for trollage though and took no offence, thing is still fun to ride but
Also i’d like to point out that AFIK most of the protagonists in this thread are known to each other and that I’ve met Zoltan while he was Zoltaned (and also before)
P.S. i’m off to start ridgidMTBcommuterwithknobbies.org.au with JLN 
P.P.S. i still suffer PTSD from seeing oratiohhhh shirtless
PPPPPSSSSSS how many FOA centric memes can i cram in one post cough CraigCbadge cough
haha, boom
This is after all, FOA
If you want hyperbolic, american style enthusiasm, you’ve come to the wrong place kids.
AL vs H…
my 2c - 40 x 11-32 will be fine for all kinds of riding - including singletrack-ish stuff. 36 would be no good for on the flat as you’ll top out pretty quickly. You’ll push on that steep shit you probably aren’t gonna ride anyways.
I used to top out the Raceline in 44x11T coming down Anzac Hwy from Keswick on a Friday night when beer was calling my name. It did have 1.5" slicks and 95 psi to make it roll. Oh, and a rigid steel fork.
My bad, was running Conti Avenue slicks 1.3" at 95psi.
Thats a lot of psi…