I've never tried it but I think the Shimano short/standard cage is only designed to work up to a 28T cog, a 32T may not work, you might want to look into it. I think there have been some posts on here about the maximum limit of a standard derailleur.

I'm actually running a SRAM CX-1 derailleur. Plenty of room for the 32t cog.

Cool, only other issue I can think of is how the cogs in the cassette are joined. Shimano cassettes usually have 2-3 cogs joined together on the larger cogs which might limit your ability to mix the cassettes.

Why not just run a smaller chain ring up front?

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Alex Arman

Strava

The 52t chainring from the Venge Lunch Race is a 130 bcd so I'd have to replace my SRM with another crankset. I've paid very close attention to the cogs I use most since I've started running 1X11 and 19-16 are the 4 that I would use the most for the rolling terrain that I train on. Only on the steepest decent around me will I drop to the 14t cog.

I do this all the time with 10spd 6700 cassettes; you should have no issues. On my CX commuter bike (46-36 chainrings, I use it to run errands / commute / haul my kids around in a trailer) I run a custom 14-30 cassette using a Miche 14t first position cog, a 6700 12-23 cassette (all of the cogs on the 12-23 are freely separated), and the big cogs from a 6700 12-30 cassette.

In your case - you don't even need a 3rd-party first position cog (you can just use the 14t from the 14-28).

As long as you stay within the same group level (all Ultegra, for instance) you're ok. When you start mixing up cogs between group level (i.e. 105 and Ultegra) then you might start running into issues. I tried to make a custom 13-27 cassette using a 6700 13-25 and a 5700 12-27, and even though the cogs fit together fine on the freehub the shifting was always off when going between the 19-21-24-27 cogs.

The current Shimano standard cage derailleur for 11 speed will work well with 30 tooth cogs (I run a SRAM 11-30 cassette with it) but you'd want the larger cage derailleur for anything bigger.

How has the hybrid cassette been working? I am intrigued by the idea of meshing the two cassettes. I'm wanting to find a suitable road solution to a 1x setup before cyclocross season when the 1x setup I'm going to run will be a CX1 parts combo.