You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Morning All,
So I'm giving my 'gravel' bike a bit of a spruce up and have decided to swap to some Cinelli Double trouble bars. I never used the drops and found I was putting too much weight on my arms which in turn causes my dodgy elbow to ache.
Anyways, long story short, I'm also swapping to 1 x 11 from 2 x 11 plus going back to thumb shifters and flat bar levers instead of the Brake/Shifter Shimano combo for dropped bars.
I'm currently running 50/34 with a 11 speed 30/11 Sprocket. I'm based in Switzerland, so it's pretty hilly, but I've been running that for years and it's working for me.
Now, As I need to replace pretty much everything, including the crank, peddle is seized in one of the crank arms, rear derailleur etc is all old...so it's a complete start from scratch.
Now I was looking at the gear ratios of Shimano and Sram....still am...there's a lot to consider, but it appears if I go with Shimano I can either go with a 40 or 42 front sprocket. with a 11 speed 11-40 I actually get a slightly lower gear in 1st, loose a bit on the top end.
But now I'm also thinking what the options are with Sram. Must admit, I don't have any experience with Sram.
Has anyone been through the same process, any words of wisdom gained from the experience?
Thanks in advance,
GL
I'm sure other people will be along soon enough for more detailed responses, and some may not agree with my mix and max approach, but as long as your shifter and mech match then pick whatever brand chainset and cassette choices give you the range you want.
^ wot he said.
And remember that you can easily extend the range of the rear mech. So, say the mech you can get will only take, I dunno, 36t max, but you want a larger cassette than that, you can use one of these and it will all work fine:
Gear mech cassette range extender tail hook like goat link up to 50t MTB single | eBay UK
That's what I've used on both my bike and MrsIHN['s bike - I'm using a 40T cassette with a mech that will theoretically only go up to 34T, and she's using a 36T cassette with a mech that theoretically only goes up to 28T. With hers I didn't even have to re-index anything, I just fitted the bigger cassette, fitted the adaptor and it was all good to go.
I'm a bit out of my depth here, but (depending on how much you're prepared to spend) I assume that you could go 12 speed & pair a MTB Di2 shifter with the GRX RX827-SGS mech. & go 42T 10-51T? It would reduce your high gear loss a bit & go extremely low at the other end?
You'd have to add a freehub to your list of replacement part though I assume.
Man...this is tricker than I thought. My rear stays are 135mm (frame is a V1 Tripster). Even trying to find a wheel isn't straight forward. The Freehub body was a bit buggered, but trying to find a suitable wheel again...bit of a head ache.
I'll try and find a replacment free hub body. Also, I'm going to try and stick with 11 speed.
Wow...I've definitely gone down a rabbit hole 🤣
Personally if I was going 11-speed and flat-bar I would pick up Shimano 11-speed MTB components for the shifter, rear mech, chain & cassette. Crankset being a gravel frame as a starting point you could use 1x GRX cranks which I think you can get in 38/40/42 chainring size and either 11 or 12 speed versions would work with the 11-speed chain and other components.
For the MTB components I really like 11-speed XT and if you're buying bits separately rather than as a full groupset (because you don't need the cranks) then depending on budget you can get some real bargains. I have full Deore 11-speed on one bike and full XT 11-speed on another and I'd say it's only really the shifter that stands out from a 'feel' point of view and the cassette is a lot lighter so those two items I'd probably pay the extra for if shopping around separately.
I'd say it's only really the shifter that stands out from a 'feel' point of view
I totally agree on the Deore/XT comparison. I always tell myself want I want is XT, what I need is Deore, what I buy is SLX.
Sell the Tripster as is and buy a new flat bar gravel/hybrid with modern thru axle standards.
Use a heat gun, a good penetrating fluid and a breaker bar to get the seized pedal off
Did you consider selling the gravel bike and buying a nice 29er hardtail secondhand?
That's what I did and came out £££s better off.
Barely any weight difference and not much slower on the flat, but way faster as soon as there are any bumps.
Just a thought.
3 x 9 shimano on my tourer with thumbies...... old school.
2 x 10 shimano on my krampus graveller.
Spa cycles for all your gearing needs. and quality 135mm wheels.
peddle is seized
You have remembered that one of the pedals has a reverse thread, haven't you! 😉
On mine I originally had it 12 speed with an XT 12 speed shifter and a 12 speed deore mech and a GX 10-50 cassette with a 38 N/W chainring. I was really unfit at the time so wanted the range whilst the 10 at the back made up a bit for the 38t at the front I also used a 9-50 cassette when in road mode. You also need an XD free hub and microspline to run this set up unless you used the 11-51 12 speed deore cassette.
But now its set up with 11 speed Shimano same as my MTBs 42 N/W at the front and 11-51 cassette and a deore rear mech (slx and Xt only go to 46 (allegedly). This runs on a standard HG free hub.
My wife has a 12 speed GX AXS / XPLR mix on her bike with a GX AXS MTB shifter and the xplr mech,10-44 cassette and flat top chain. For this you need an XDR free hub
If you can save the crankset you should be able to find a NW ring to match the bolt pattern on Amazon or Aliexpress.
@stainypants Deore and upwards rear mechs are cross compatible between 11 and 12spd so if you want to run an 11spd 50t cassette simply use the 12spd variant rear mech.
peddle is seized
You have remembered that one of the pedals has a reverse thread, haven't you! 😉
Yep, I'm an old fart...learned that lesson when I were a whipper snapper.
These people clearly haven't owned a Tripster V1! You can't sell it! It's a bike for life 😀
Mavic Allroads is what I use on my V1 - they come non-boost, with adapters, so you can run em on the Tripster. They're decent wheels too. Or get some hubs to build new wheels?
This thread has me thinking about converting my gravel bike to flat bars as I never use the drops.
Off to eBay I go to look for Tiagra flat bar shifters!