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Do Shimano 12 speed chains preclude their use with Shimano 11 speed chainrings?
My mate is going to upgrade his drivetrain from SLX 11 speed to SLX 12 speed but wondered if he could retain his existing M7000-11 speed crankset and chainring.
Reason for change is to provide a little more uphill assistance.
Thanks in advance.
The internal width of 11 and 12 speed chains is the same, so no problem working on an 11 speed chainset
That said I believe the Shomano 12 speed chains have different chamfers inside them so the 12 speed chain doesn’t work with all chainrings. Some anecdotal commentary suggest the shimano 12 speed quick link maybe the main issue and changing to KMC / Sram might sort this out.
I’m running Shimano XT 12 speed with a Sram crank but have specifically bought a Northshore Billet chainring designed for Sram direct mount but with a Shimano HG12 compatible teeth profile.
When I emailed Superstar about their rings they said they work fine with Shimano 12 speed as another option, although I haven’t tried one out.
Also fwiw I was building a new XT 12sp bike for MrsP but an ordering cock up left me without a 12sp XT mech, so I figured I'd try sticking on a spare 11sp SLX mech to see if I could at least get the bike rideable. A quick fiddle with limit screws & B tension had it running just fine up and down the whole cassette and she rode it like that for the next month.
Can't he just buy the new 11 speed deore cassette, it comes in 11-51t, touch and go if the mech can do that range, but believe that all shimano mechs were cleared for the sunrace 50t cassette, so should be doable.