12 speed derailleur & 11 speed shifter & 50t cog
11-06-21, 08:33 PM
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12 speed derailleur & 11 speed shifter & 50t cog
Today I installed an XT M8120 SGS 12 speed rear derailleur on my wife's 11 speed 2015 Santa Cruz 5010 today.
We think it's going to work great. A big ride tomorrow will prove it or not.
The cassette is a Sunrace 11-50. The shifter is XT M8000 (the shifter is new, but direct replacement for the original one, which was starting to falter).
The bike has loads of trail miles on it and has been through a lot of drivetrain changes It was originally built with a 2x11 XT drivetrain.
As the years went by and things wore out we eventually became 1x, starting out with a 46t cassette. To make that work we bought a Wolf Tooth hanger extension for the derailleur.
This worked pretty good. But she missed the lower gears the 2x11 had originally. It was okay to tough it out, she's a single speeder as well, but some of the trails she rides are ludicrous steep, plus the bike gets taken on loaded bike packing trips too.
When the chainring was worn out we decided to put the 50t cassette on there. The Wild Tooth extension and M8000 XT wouldn't work.
On the internet I found a Sunrace , RDMS30 rear derailleur (works on 10, 11, and 12 speed) for $60 at the time (they're $80 now). I put that on and it worked great. The problem was that I could see it was vulnerable and delicate, and the clutch was a bit weak. It was also fiddly to install, but quite straightforward.
The delicate M30 part is that the plastic cable pulley (similar to some SRAM derailleurs) sticks out and is made of brittle plastic. It eventually cracked (I think this part is replaceable, and I plan on trying to get one from Sunrace/Sturmey Archer). It actually worked, kind of, but played havoc with shifting, so it wasn't a ride stopper. This plastic pulley/shifter cable guide assembly stuck out where it can take hits from the trailside and could take hits if the bike is laid down on that side. I knew it was trouble from the second I installed it.
Anyway, I don't know where I read it, but the 12 speed derailleurs are supposed to work on 11's. This is so cool, because there's a lot of us running 11 speed 1x bikes who want to use 11-50 or XD 9/10-50 cassettes.
There's a lot of use who have perfectly usable and great non-boost bikes.
Now it is important to note that Shimano says the M8120 derailleur is that it is rated for max 45t cog. So the wife is going to find out if the 50t will really work!
I'll report back. Hopefully not from the dog-house.
I will say that the Sunrace rear derailleur was pretty good, and virtually went unnoticed because it was so good when it was working. It's other disappointing feature was a slightly weak parallelogram spring.
Well I was going to write about some tubeless tire issues I worked on in the garage today, but I'm out of time. Suffice it to say, tubeless tires are great, but....
We think it's going to work great. A big ride tomorrow will prove it or not.
The cassette is a Sunrace 11-50. The shifter is XT M8000 (the shifter is new, but direct replacement for the original one, which was starting to falter).
The bike has loads of trail miles on it and has been through a lot of drivetrain changes It was originally built with a 2x11 XT drivetrain.
As the years went by and things wore out we eventually became 1x, starting out with a 46t cassette. To make that work we bought a Wolf Tooth hanger extension for the derailleur.
This worked pretty good. But she missed the lower gears the 2x11 had originally. It was okay to tough it out, she's a single speeder as well, but some of the trails she rides are ludicrous steep, plus the bike gets taken on loaded bike packing trips too.
When the chainring was worn out we decided to put the 50t cassette on there. The Wild Tooth extension and M8000 XT wouldn't work.
On the internet I found a Sunrace , RDMS30 rear derailleur (works on 10, 11, and 12 speed) for $60 at the time (they're $80 now). I put that on and it worked great. The problem was that I could see it was vulnerable and delicate, and the clutch was a bit weak. It was also fiddly to install, but quite straightforward.
The delicate M30 part is that the plastic cable pulley (similar to some SRAM derailleurs) sticks out and is made of brittle plastic. It eventually cracked (I think this part is replaceable, and I plan on trying to get one from Sunrace/Sturmey Archer). It actually worked, kind of, but played havoc with shifting, so it wasn't a ride stopper. This plastic pulley/shifter cable guide assembly stuck out where it can take hits from the trailside and could take hits if the bike is laid down on that side. I knew it was trouble from the second I installed it.
Anyway, I don't know where I read it, but the 12 speed derailleurs are supposed to work on 11's. This is so cool, because there's a lot of us running 11 speed 1x bikes who want to use 11-50 or XD 9/10-50 cassettes.
There's a lot of use who have perfectly usable and great non-boost bikes.
Now it is important to note that Shimano says the M8120 derailleur is that it is rated for max 45t cog. So the wife is going to find out if the 50t will really work!
I'll report back. Hopefully not from the dog-house.
I will say that the Sunrace rear derailleur was pretty good, and virtually went unnoticed because it was so good when it was working. It's other disappointing feature was a slightly weak parallelogram spring.
Well I was going to write about some tubeless tire issues I worked on in the garage today, but I'm out of time. Suffice it to say, tubeless tires are great, but....
11-07-21, 07:46 PM
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Quick report back. It works great.
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