[Closed] 1x10 Gears : 11-42 or 11-46 Cassette Query

I use 32T front with 11-40 rear and I find I use the lowest gear for long draggy climbs rather than the short steep ones. On the latter I'll be in 32:32 and standing. Even with a top ratio of 32:11 I'll rarely use it as by the time I get to the point where I spin out I might as well be coasting and getting my breath back.

If you are just getting the cassette will your mech cope with the wider range?

You need to compare it to what you want to ride and how you want to ride it.

That means calculating the gear ratio in whatever terms you choose (development or gear inches) to calculate if you'll get what you want, based on what you currently have.

If you want someone to calculate it for you, they'll need more information! 😛

What's your current set up and what gear do you use for those climbs at the moment?

If you don't mind me asking where have you sourced the 10spd 11-46 cassette?

If you don't mind me asking where have you sourced the 10spd 11-46 cassette?

I got my local bike shop (Brixton cycles) to order one. Guess you need to find a bike shop that deals with Ison Distribution.

Mr Smell - I had a hard time finding them in the online shops, but there are quite a few on Ebay new.

Whitestone - I am talking about long steep climbs. I have no idea if the mech will cope, it's an XT M786 Shadow Plus Medium Cage.

I have an 11-36 cassette at present and have to stop and push on the long steep bits. As for actually trying to calculate gear ratios this confuses me greatly, but I have to say a 46 tooth cog does seem huge!

I have a Sun race 10 speed 11 - 46 on a 29 plus bike. Tried it with an XT M786 mech with Rad cage, but mech was too short to reach 46, so used an M8000 XT med cage mech and works fine on 10 speed. Running either 30t or 32t front n/w ring depending on amount of climbing and distance of ride.

To get the ratios simply divide the number of teeth on the chainring by those on whichever sprocket you want to check. So with 32T front, 40T rear:

32/40 = 0.8

If you want gear inches then multiply that number by the diameter of your wheel, so for a 29er:

0.8 * 29 = 23.2

For the 11T:

32/11 = 2.909
29 * 2.909 = 84.36

Easiest if you use a spreadsheet.

Or just use this to compare it to your current setup.

http://www.gear-calculator.com/

As for actually trying to calculate gear ratios this confuses me greatly,

don't overthink what gear inches or metres development actually means. for example:

32:36 = 24 GI = 22:25 it really doesn;t matter what a gear inch is.

Gear calculator is great as you can compare your casette to a bigger cassette. I like to think in equivilent ratios. hence the 22T granny example above.

Andy

Was the M786 a medium cage as well? Aaaaargh. This could mean a new derailleur then... and if I do that I would probably be as well going 1x11 throughout. It is a money pit!

So in your experience of 32 with 46 this is not giving you a stupidly low gear?

+1

Gear inches, etc. are just a number that gives an indication of how much effort is required to pedal in a certain gear - the bigger the number, the harder it is.

If you use one of the on-line calculators then you can see that with 3x and 2x systems there are a number of ratios that are very close. In practice you are unlikely to be able to tell the difference. Could you tell the difference between 54.59 and 55.33 gear inches for example? You'll actually be more interested in what happens at top and bottom of the range as you'll lose some ratios - it's up to you what to chose.

Yes medium cage, but cage length not overly the issue here, as med v large is about what range, not the biggest cog capacity. The mech body just isnt long enough to get the cage onto the 46t. I went for this option as saved the cost of 11 speed shifter and meant i was still running 10 speed chains across all bikes. Hopefully a 10 speed chain will last longer than 11 speed as well.

32/46 stupidly low? Depends on how fit you are and how long and hilly your rides. I can only answer that question for myself 😀

My 27.5 runs 32/42 but I never use the 42... in fact having changed wheels a couple of weeks ago the mech needs adjusting to get into 1st but I haven't bothered as it's a wasted gear. Made the whole point of going 10->11 pointless...

My HT (also 27.5) has a 34T/40T ... and I rarely use the 40T expander...

Prior to using 1x I did actually use some of the gear ratio's.(the ones I don't have).. but TBH looking back I didn't really use them so much as they were there so I'd change into them....

TBH the best way to tell is go out and actually try and limit what gear ratio's you use and see if its enough..
I'm not really that fussed over top end speed.... and the 40T works better than the 42 on the M780 GS mech ... the only reason i put the 34 on was because my kid needed a new chainring and the 34T was spare but I thought perhaps a bit big for him... as it turns out though I put it on last night and we went for a ride... so it looks like he'll be using that on 24" wheels with 34T front and 12-40 rear...

I rode a 36T last night on the HT and that didn't feel too bad either... didn't need 1-3 gear.. despite looking for the steepest hills we could find. It was telling though that I had no NW on and the clutch is broken (actually he broke his and I donated my clutch to his mech) so I lost the chain twice ...

Andykirk/ mudmonster - thanks lads, I never thought to check eBay. Certainly looks like that's my friend. Cheers

I run 48/32 on a 650b in the peak and I use it. It's not too low for me.

Wife runs 46/30 and uses that.

If it was my bike, I woukdnt hesitate to go for the 46, then do whatever was needed to make it work.

If you decide to go 11 speed, sunrace do an 11-50 you know.

I will be running a 1x10 with a 32 tooth front ring, looking at getting a Sunrace either 11-42 or 11-46. I do want a decent granny gear as I enjoy tackling the steep uphills...

I'd certainly be looking at getting a 30t ring then. You can always freewheel downhill...

So just to clarify, in order to get the Sunrace 11-46 to work I would also need to get a medium cage XT M8000 derailleur which I understand is 11 speed? I have a 10 speed XTR shifter.

30t/11-42 here on my 29er, handles the Cornish climbs just fine.

Aaaaargh.

I wish someone would invent 2x10 😕

So just to clarify, in order to get the Sunrace 11-46 to work I would also need to get a medium cage XT M8000 derailleur which I understand is 11 speed? I have a 10 speed XTR shifter.

I couldn't get my old xt rear mech to work with a rad cage very well. I could have bought a longer b tension screw but I decided to just buy an m8000 rear mech. Works great now.

Seen the 11-46 cassettes on eBay. So much cheaper than what I paid, oh well.

So just to clarify, in order to get the Sunrace 11-46 to work I would also need to get a medium cage XT M8000 derailleur which I understand is 11 speed? I have a 10 speed XTR shifter.

Correct. Thats exactly the set up I am using with a 30 or 32t front n/w ring. 11 Speed shimano has the same pull ratio as 10 speed shimano

1x10 with 11-42 and 29+ here

I'm happy not having the huge gap of 46t

upfront I swap a 32t and a 30t oval for bikepacking trips

very happy with that

I find the gaps on Sunrace 11-46 much nicer than those on the shimano 11-46. Plus only the 46 is alu as opposed to the two two with shimano.

Thank you for all the help chaps. I will post a picture of the bike once finally built.

Whitestone I appreciate your efforts but I'm afraid it's just all too much for me. Your approach is however I expect the correct one as I will probably find out in the long term!

Would a 10 speed SRAM X9 mech have the range for 11-46 ?

[i]I wish someone would invent 2x10[/i]

I must be an inventor! I've got 2 2X10 bikes 🙂

Your approach is however I expect the correct one as I will probably find out in the long term!

I don't think anything except trying on what you usually ride really works...
On the 27.5 I find 40T is fine as a bail out with a 32 or 34 up front .. I very rarely use it [b]but when I do I'd probably then use 1 42, 44, etc [/b]. I think this is more psychological than physics though, once I do change then I'd use anything even if slower than walking .... so on the 27.5 wheels it [b]feels[/b] like 11-34 or 11-36 then a bail-out... so I see it more like a 9 speed + bail... rather than 10 matched, evenly spaced gears...

The thing is there is a reason for the 40T and not bigger... which is once you go bigger the med cage M78x struggles so given you're on a 29er and the 40T is probably not enough (from description) then you're into more elaborate/expensive solutions or hoping the 42T works on your frame/mech hangar.That said the 29er will (all else being equal) have longer chainstays so perhaps the 42T would work more reliably...

Given 95%+ of the time is spent in other gears and the 1st is more of a 'sod it' I prefer trying to keep the 9 main gears as workable as possible and then just have the 'sod it' granny.

One advantage of the expander rings is they are relatively cheap and replaceable compared to a cassette.

@stevext - I've found I use the expander cog so infrequently, i.e. it's just a bail out gear, that it lasts for the life of three cassettes so the high initial cost actually works out to be very reasonable.

The only downside is that the gap created by removing the 17T is noticeable (to me) when I have a 32T chainring. I don't notice it with a 30T chainring.

[b]Andy - Member[/b]

So just to clarify, in order to get the Sunrace 11-46 to work I would also need to get a medium cage XT M8000 derailleur which I understand is 11 speed? I have a 10 speed XTR shifter.

[b]Correct. Thats exactly the set up I am using with a 30 or 32t front n/w ring. 11 Speed shimano has the same pull ratio as 10 speed shimano[/b]

I presume on that basis that an SLX M7000 would work too?

[url= https://www.bike-discount.de/en/buy/shimano-slx-11-speed-rear-derailleur-rd-m7000-gs-shadow-532695/wg_id-6566 ]SLX M7000[/url]

http://bike.shimano.com/content/sac-bike/en/home/mtb1/shifting---braking/rear-derailleur/rd-m7000-11-gs.html

The only downside is that the gap created by removing the 17T is noticeable (to me) when I have a 32T chainring. I don't notice it with a 30T chainring.

I removed the 11T instead so I don't have that but even so I think the priority for me is the gears I use all the time and a bailout... I tend to use it more than I would because I spend nearly all my bike time with the kid .. and if I use it it's sometimes just to go slow enough to encourage him up a really steep long climb rather than because i actually need it...

I swapped wheels over a few weeks ago (the trail bike is now 11 speed) and had a few rides before I actually realised that I didn't have 1st gear... in fact I didn't discover this until I was cleaning the bike..

The 'upgrade' from 1x10 to 1x11 is the most underwhelming in terms of ££/gain for me..
I got the 11-42 without really thinking it through - 2 extra teeth just seemed like a justification at XMAS... whereas in reality I just got the 11T back but more or less lost a semi-usable 1st... it's not that I don't use it but I think its mainly just because that's the 11th gear so it's just the last click... if 11th was 12T I doubt I'd feel a need ...

Just fitted a 46t 10 speed Sunrace cassette and a new longer chain, not surprisingly the Zee R.M. wont reach out far enough for the big cog.  I was prepared to fit an 11 speed XT M8000 R.M. but my LBS are telling me that it wont work because my bike has a 135 mm Q.R.dropout. A further complication MAY be that the bike is an Orange Sub 3 and the dropouts reach vertically down from the swinging arm, (not shure about this though).

Has anyone done a similar  upgrade not just on an Orange?

I don't think this is relevant but I'm using a Zee 10 speed shifter and have a variety of N.W. chainrings.

Call me Mr Thicky McThick but what has the dropout spacing or the fact that it's QR got to do with whether the rear mech will work?

My thoughts exactly, either that or we're both thick. I just want to be shure before splashing out on a XT rear mech. So, has anyone here done it?

Other people have run 10s shimano shifters with an 11s shimano mech. I believe the capacity of the 11s mech is only 42T though, so you might need a goatlink too.

FWIW I run a 10s 11-42 using M786 with a goatlink, I got it working without the goatlink (by removing the plastic bit from the mech that acts as a threadlock on the B tension screw) but the chain slipped under high power in the smaller sprockets even when the setup was new. With the goatlink this is sorted. I also got a pretty poor life from my first chain on it, the goatlink may help with this too (it gives better wrap around the smaller sprockets).

Of course the goatlink 11s (which is what you'd need) is quite pricey for what it is.

Interested in this as have bought a 11-46 10 speed Sunrace cassette and running a medium cage xt rear mech with rad cage currently running an 11-42 but will change when it wears out.

I bought one of those rear derailleur extension hangers off eBay for about £3 as  I heard they help, fingers crossed!

I'm using an 11-46 Sunrace cassette on my 29'er with a 34T Hope N/W at the front, and an SLX M7000 11 speed shifter - works fine for me

I've used a medium cage XT rear mech with an 11-42 cassette with no problem on a 1x11 setup. It's probably the limit though, if I went to 11-46 then I think I'd want to use a long cage RM.

I happened to look at the web page for the Goat Link the other day and it seems that only works with Shimano shadow mechs, there may be an option for other types.

Hi,

I'm running a Sunrace 11-46 10spd cassette with 10spd Zee shifter and 11 spd XT M8000 medium cage mech (Shimano rate the mech to 46T on 1x setups) and it set up and works fine on my hardtail with a 32T n/w chainring.

I prefer the 10 spd ratios to 11spd esp Shimano...

That sunrace goatlink thingy in fresh goods friday for a tenner looks great for increasing clearance on 11-46 cassettes