Eugene23

Can I replace my shimano sora 50/39/30T crankset for MTB SHIMANO DEORE 40/30/22 for higher gears and use it with 11-34 cassette? Is it going to work with STI Shifters? Or any other options to get higher gears? Maybe I can change rear cassette? But I could not find any other shimano 9speed cassettes with high gear options.

I have Marin four corners bicycle.
SHIMANO Alivio FC-T4060 48/36/26 Crankset works, but I had to play around with spacers and I need to make double click to change gears, but in touring it is not a problem.

alcjphil

A mountain bike crankset provides lower gears, not higher ones
I have installed a mountain bike crank on my touring bike so that I would have lower gears for loaded touring

cyccommute 

Yup. The bikes below have mountain cranks. The white bike has had a couple of different mountain cranks on it. The first picture is of the bike using an XT 44/32/20 external bottom bracket crankset. The second picture is of the same bike with a mountain crank on it that uses a regular cartridge bearing bottom bracket. The last picture is of another bike with a Shimano external bottom bracket.




The main problem with using mountain bike cranks is that the chain line is a bit wide with a mountain crank. A road front derailer may not be able to reach out to the highest gear so the crank needs to be moved inboard roughly 2.5mm. For a internal BB, that means using a shorter spindle. For an external BB, that means moving spacers from the drive side to the nondrive side.

The other issue you might run across, especially with the smaller diameter 40 tooth gear, is that the bottom of the derailer may hit the chainstay. You can see that I have a lot of room between the bottom of the front derailer and the chainstay in the first picture. But I can say the same for a smaller chainring.

Finally, some may say that a road derailer can’t be used because the curve is wrong. I have no problems using just a regular road front derailer with any crank I’ve used. Indexed front shifting on both of these bikes is nice and crisp.

Edit: Opps, didn’t see that you wanted higher gears. Smaller rings give lower gears. I’m not sure you really mean that you want higher gearing.

70sSanO

I think you might need to let everyone know exactly what is wrong with the gearing. Right now your gear inches run 25 to 127 (per review of the bike).

A 22-34 ratio gives you a low of 18 gear Inches.

You “might” be able to swap out the 30t for a 28t and get to 23 gear inches.

Keeping the 30t and using a RoadLink and 40t cog gets you to 21 gear inches.
That might pose problems with capacity (small/small) and some people find shift quality going to the 11t not as good.

Personally, if you need 18 or so gear inches you’re not going to be running in the 50-11.

John

Iride01 

Your biggest issue will be chain line, but it might work well enough. Especially if you truly mean high gears as in high ratio gears. But... going to smaller rings won't give you that. So did you mean you need lower gears?

The Deore FC-M8000-3 has a chain line of 50 mm. Other Deore cranks vary. Most Sora cranks have a chainline of 43.5 mm.

Don't know if you can still use your same BB. Shimano has a different BB recommendation for them.

cyccommute 

Why not? It’s not your choice for what kind of gearing Eugene23 uses. It’s his. If you don’t want to use a wide gear range, don’t! But don’t try to tell others what kind of gearing they should have, need, or desire.

I have bikes with 50/39/24 crankset with an 11-34 cassette. That’s an 18” low and a 122” high. Just because I like to climb in some comfort, doesn’t mean I want to coast down the hills I climb up.

cyccommute 

Chainline is adjustable to a certain extent. As long as the rings don’t hit the frame, you can use a narrower spindle or move spacers around. Bikes can be made to do lots of things the manufacturers (of both bikes and components) say can’t be done.

Iride01 

I agree with that and also your previous response in this thread.

However aren't Deore cranksets of various models just 2 piece cranks? There won't be as much ability to adjust chain line with them. So possibly one of the other models of cranks that use a cartridge octalink BB or even the square tapers I dislike so much will be better for the OP.

Though I think we are still waiting to see if higher gearing means higher ratio gearing. Which will probably take a mountain bike crank out of the running.

70sSanO

That’s true. But if you wanted to swap a 50t to a 40t to get higher gears, I’d probably say the same thing to you.

I think the OP wants lower gears, but without any more detail from the OP, who knows. His Marin is a current gravel bike. How well the FD plays with a mtb crank and the 40t could be another issue; and it is harder to hack a mtb FD with a triple.

Unfortunately the current 8/9 speed Shimano road drivetrains don’t integrate as the current 10/11 speed gravel options do. Triples don’t help either as the R3000 double left shifter would probably work with a mtb FD. The 4700 does.

John

Eugene23

Recently I have made 600 miles bike tour with heavy load through quite hilly terrain and next year I am planning to go to the country where I the terrain will be even more tougher. I am going to have 0.5-1 mile climbs per day. Thats why I am looking for lower gear options. Probably I have found the solution. I will go for ALIVIO FC-T4060 48-36-26

70sSanO

Good for you. That’s the stuff that matters and it makes sense.

You might be able to push your max cog 34t to 36t (11/12-36) and pick up a tiny bit more low end.

Quite often Shimano specs are a bit conservative.

John

cyccommute 

I have two Shimano 2 piece (aka external bearing) cranks on the bikes in the picture above. It’s unorthodox but I have moved all of the spacers on the drive side to the nondrive side to give the road derailers I use the range they need. Internal bearing bottom brackets are more orthodox but they are a little more involved in installation.

70sSanO

This would probably work, but even if you left 1 spacer on the DS you would be at a “theoretical” 47.5mm. Sora r3030 triple is 45mm. That would seem close enough to me.

John

Edit added: You can check how far out the FD will reach before swapping anything.

cyccommute 

I have checked how far out the front derailer swings…several times. 2.5mm may not seem like much but road derailers just don’t have a long enough swing to reach that far. Swapping the spacers over to the nondrive side hasn’t had a downside in several thousand miles of riding. Of course I use the mountain bike cups because they are longer.

70sSanO

Thanks! Great first hand knowledge.

Any experience with running a 26t with a “modern” road FD?

John

70sSanO

There is one other option, especially since the new Alivio crank is very similar to your Sora, you can swap out the 30t for a 26t. You’ll need to match the BCD and bolt configuration of the crank, but it would make for a good test platform to see if the 26t-39t gap works with your FD.

For many years mix-n-match was the norm. It has become a bit tougher with matched rings, but I would think swapping the inner chainring would be possible.

The fact is, 2/3 of your Sora is nearly identical to the Alivio. Picking up a tooth or two on the middle and outer chainrings is not significant. I would guess your current 39t ring will do the bulk of the work. If that and the 26t work, you might be set.

John

cyccommute 

26 tooth inner ring? Shouldn’t be a problem. The bikes in the pictures have a 22 tooth inner on the black bike and both cranks on the white bike have 20 (!!!!) tooth inners. Zero issues with shifting. The black Cannondale has a Microshift front and the white Cannondale has an IRD Alpina front with the Race Face crank and an inexpensive Shimano front (Sora or Claris, can’t remember which) with the XT crank. I went to the Shimano front because the IRD flexed too much with the braze-on clamp.

I have a tandem with a 52/39/24 road crank that works just fine with a “modern” (2010) front derailer.

One thing I’ve found over the years is that Shimano front derailers are far better in the less expensive models. They are easier to set up and work better over a wider gear range without rubbing then the more expensive models. Shimano tends to get too clever when it comes to their high end front derailers and the cleverness is seldom an improvement.

70sSanO

I just happen to look up an r3000 crank and it uses a 110/74 bcd 5 bolt pattern. It is a very common, although older, bolt pattern.

I’m pretty positive you can run down to a 46t outer ring with the existing triple FD. I’ve done it with a Tiagra triple FD. This also means you can run a middle ring down to 34t or in between the 39t.

46-36-26 puts you halfway between the Sora and the Deore you were originally thinking of.

John

Ihmemies

I've been wondering about this. If I have a frame/hub with 130mm wide Shimano road hub in rear, and put a 11-speed MTB casette in there. Like a Shimano 105 hub with HG freehub: https://www.kstoerz.com/freespoke/hub/607 And a SLX 11-42t casette or something like that.

What kind of chainline I need for a 1x front crank, no front deraileur. I looked at the options and for example Shimano Deore FC-M5100-1 Crankset has 52mm chainline: https://www.bike-components.de/en/Sh...ankset-p77714/

Usually MTB's use a 135mm or wider rear hub, but I read that you can use MTB casettes in road hubs just fine. The only thing I'm wondering is chainline. I understood that the front chainring should be in the middle of the rear casette. Do all those MTB cranksets have too wide chainline? What kind of cranks would work in that situation?

Germany_chris

If you’re using a 130 hub you need to be ~43

Ihmemies

Thanks. So I need something like this then instead, with a 110mm or 113mm spindle in bottom bracket: https://velo-orange.com/products/sin...kset-w-nw-ring

Ir has a 42mm chainline with a 110mm BB. And a 42t narrow-wide chainring.

Germany_chris

If VO says 110 then just go with it, that have both made so they’d know.