I live in an area that has long steep climbs and descents.
I currently have an 11-28 rear cassette. Often times, my cadence drops way down (55-60 rpm) on the steeps. I try to turn them faster, but my heart rate spikes.
I am considering putting an 11-36 rear casssette on my bike. Is this a stupid idea? I would like to keep a higher cadence on ascents if I can.
What chainring size, and what rear derailleur do you have? (If it’s a road derailleur you’ll be lucky to fit a 36)
What chainring size, and what rear derailleur do you have? (If it’s a road derailleur you’ll be lucky to fit a 36)
I am looking at a 10-speed Shimano XT CS-M771.
I have a shimano 105 rear deraileur.
Thanks. That is what I was afraid of. I have been in a few races where people on road bikes with a 9x3 setup zip right past me as I am slowly cranking away. It is making me wonder if I need to just switch to an old ass road bike to keep up.
The relatively inexpensive workaround is a wolftooth road link. This will increase the size of the cassette your derailleur can handle but not the wrap so you have to have enough chain to handle the 36 with your big chainring but it won’t suck up enough chain if you go small/smallish. It works fine on the cheap.
Other solutions cost a lot more, though they might work better in the long run.
I’ve been through this process.
I have a 1x TT bike with a quite big front chainring and I did a hilly IM this year. I wanted to keep the chainring so I opted for a large cassette, and I choose 11-36.
But the available cassettes I saw lacked a lot of gears in the smaller cogs and I wanted to keep a good choice of gears for the rolling parts. So I took a 11-28 shimano cassette, and swapped the 3 biggest cogs. For that I found a Fouriers 3 cogs cassette converter (26-30-36 teeth, (not so easy to find and not that much cheaper than a full cassette by the way…)) and I got the perfect 11s cassette for my use, with the first 8 gears well distributed, and 3 « bailout » gears for hills.
11-12-13-14-15-17-19-21-26-30-36
I already had a long cage derailleur
Does your rear derailleur have the capacity to handle an 11-36 cassette?
Does your rear derailleur have the capacity to handle an 11-36 cassette?
That’s what I was getting at. Depending on which 105 10-speed it is, the limit will be 28, or 32T for the later 5700 stuff.
As asked earlier, what chainrings are you using? I live on the coast with a range of hills running about 3km from that coast, so apart from 1 coastal route on the flat, every route has some hills, many a lot. As in typically 1500m climb for a 100km ride, but 2500m is one of our regular rides. Max climb locally is 13km constant climb at low gradient, and we’ve a few 15% climbs around.
I’m about a 5:10 rider for IM, and my road riding improved a lot when I went semi compact chainset with 11-34 cassette. Previously I’d done the strong cyclist= mentality of 39-53 with 12-25.
Depending on the setup, you might be limited to 30 or 32!in back, but if you have a 39 front ring, get a compact Shimano crank and drop down to 34, it will help a lot. Something cheap like sora is fine, look in eBay. You could also run a triple, but that’s more hardware and headaches, see if 34 x 30 gets you over the top
Shimano is very conservative on their derailleur gear capacity ratings. If the 105 is a long cage unit, it might work depending on your frame dimensions. Likely need to modify chain length and Wolf tooth unit as discussed above or maybe just adjusting the B screw might get the job done…
If that does not work, I would substitute a Shimano GRX rear derailleur. Plenty of gravel bike sites talk about overgearing this unit. Here is an interesting video that shows that it can work with the GRX units: https://youtu.be/wNeYYM9_aeM
If that does not work, I would substitute a Shimano GRX rear derailleur. Plenty of gravel bike sites talk about overgearing this unit.
Be careful, GRX400 (and Tiagra 4700) rear derailleurs are not backwards compatible with earlier Shimano 10 speed shifters.
But this link suggests a 105 5701 rear derailleur might clear a 36t cog with the stock hanger:
https://www.roadbikereview.com/threads/shimano-105-rd-5701-gs-10-speed-medium-cage-derailleur-will-take-a-36t-cassette.351217/
OP, run whatever gearing makes the ride most enjoyable. Don’t worry about what other people think. I’m old, heavy, not in very good shape at the moment, and I don’t like grinding a low cadence. Not exactly the ideal combination for riding where there are climbs. To cope, I made a Frankenderailleur with a GS road upper half mated to a mountain SGS cage to be able to clear the big cog and have enough chain wrap for an 11-40 cassette/50-34 crankset combo.
If that does not work, I would substitute a Shimano GRX rear derailleur.
No. The actuation ratio on GRX rear derailleurs is compatible with Shimano’s 11-speed road drivetrains, and with their 10-speed road drivetrains made since 2015 (Tiagra 4700 and GRX400). It sounds like the OP is using a pre-2015 10-speed road drivetrain, which is not compatible with GRX.
The OP’s drivetrain is compatible with all Shimano 8/9-speed rear derailleurs, so if they need more capacity, a 9-speed MTB derailleur would work.
There are lots of ways to gerry rig your setup to take a 11x36 cassette, but you probably won’t like it when you get it set up. I’ve tried what you’re trying to do and found the overall gear spacing far from optimal. There will be gaps in the higher gears (smaller cogs) where you spend more of your time. My suggestion: run a compact (34/50) crank with an 11/32 cassette. If you can’t climb in that gear, address the root causes.
Don’t ditch that 10 speed stuff, it’s cheap and easy to find and it shifts great. I have a garage full of 10 speed bikes
11-36 with a 10 speed 105 short cage - no, it won’t work. The pulley won’t clear the 36. I’ve never tried with with a long cage (gs) but I don’t think it’ll work either. You can get an 11-32 to work with a little extra chain, I’ve done it several times. I have zero experience with a road link, that may or may not work, I’ve heard good things about it though.
11-36 on an 11 speed R7000 or R8000 gs will work. I have done it on 3 different bikes.
There are lots of ways to gerry rig your setup to take a 11x36 cassette, but you probably won’t like it when you get it set up. I’ve tried what you’re trying to do and found the overall gear spacing far from optimal. There will be gaps in the higher gears (smaller cogs) where you spend more of your time. My suggestion: run a compact (34/50) crank with an 11/32 cassette. If you can’t climb in that gear, address the root causes.
I am very average (and 53) and with that setup I did alpe du Huez and mount ventoux and you can too
I’ I found a Fouriers 3 cogs cassette converter (26-30-36 teeth, (not so easy to find and not that much cheaper than a full cassette by the way…)) and I got the perfect 11s cassette for my use, with the first 8 gears well distributed, and 3 « bailout » gears for hills.
11-12-13-14-15-17-19-21-26-30-36
I already had a long cage derailleur
This sounds great. I’m the same as you. For longer touring rides, I prefer tight ratio for the first 8 where I spend most of my time and then big jumps for the last three so I can spin up steep climbs. How well does it shift?
The shift has been flawless.
Do you have a link to this part? Can’t find it on their site
I got it from this site (I live in France)
https://veloseine.fr/11550043-convertisseur-de-k7-shimano-11v11-28t-en-11-36-fouriers.html
I also had a hard time finding data about the product, it might be discontinued. It is featured in their 2018 line-up
https://www.fouriers-bike.com/en/library/dl_file.php?dir=catalogues&filename=spUqXpw21F3%2F7Kp9yTkSKGfXqmTNog&o_file=2018.pdf