Fentuz

Hi,

due to part shortage and XD drive, i cannot get a sunrace 10-46 cassette so I m thinking about a e thirteen 9-46 11 speed.
with my 36 ring, it would make it similar to my shimano set for off road (36x46) and similar to the original set (42x10).
now how are the gaps between gears? Are they very noticeable?

looking at the cog set up, it seems to be design as 2 5-speed cassettes ( a ‘5 close hard gears’ for road and then ‘5 mtb easy gears’) and a middle gear to bridge the 2 together.

what s your experience?

thanks

Bryan C. 

I used that same chainring size and cassette for a while on my Diverge. Overall the range of the cassette is nice, great climbing gear with plenty of top end. The problem I had was the gaps in the middle gear range. The 14 - 17 - 20 gaps were pretty bad as they are in constant use in the 15mph to 20mph range. I swapped on a 34t chainring and that helped a bit, but not enough to fix the problem for me. I wound up switching to a 2x set-up with an 11-40 casette to solve the problem.

I swapped that cassette onto my MTB with a 30t chainring and it was an amazing set up. Never noticed the gaps after that.

YMMV

Fentuz

yes, the cassette would be better if :
46 39 33 28 24 20 17 15 13 11 9
rather than
46 39 33 28 24 20 17 14 12 10 9

Fentuz

I fitted my ethirteen TRS+ 9-46 2ndgeneration.

From an installation point of view, it took an bit of time put it together and the anodized aluminium cogs was tight on the steel cogs; the bayonnette fitting needed several test fitting on the bench 1st before going on the tight XD hub.
Once the cassette was on, it needed a few little tweeks; the b-screw could be relaxed and the eThirteen 39-46 jump is much smaller than the SLX 37-46 jump. So, I'm getting better wrapping.

I did 3 MTB rides and found that with a clean chain, it is almost quiet; there was tidy noise when moving between cogs 17-20-24. Nothing serious and I could move it adjusting the cable micro-adjuster by 1/4 turn. When the chain was dirty after 50k off road, the noise in these gears noticeable, a bit like if the chain had jump a tooth on the narrow/wide jockey wheel.
I cleaned the bike properly and the noise was back to its tiny noise. I checked the clearance with filler blades and I think that in this gears, as the cog diameter difference is significant, the chain rivet clearance might be challenged a little and it is likely to be dealt which through a longer bedding in process (some reviews say these cassettes are noisy for the 1st couple of 100km).

As I did not like that, I put a 12speed eagle NX chain instead of PC1110 because it offers 0.15mm of extra clearance with the next bigger cog (5.3mm instead of 5.6mm). On the bike stand, it works perfectly, the gearshift is good, I did not notice any difference so far and it is quiet everywhere. Added bonus, it reduces the grabbing on 9T cog when back pedaling.
I rode it briefly around the block and it seems to work/shift as well as the SLX 11-46 cassette with a PC1110 chain.

I'll try a muddy MTB trail to confirm but so far, so good.

Fentuz

I rode a 20k and a 30k loops. with the 12S chain, it seems to shift equally well compare to the 11s PC1110 with cassette XG1150. With the 36 chainring, the gap between gear felt like the gap for a 10-42 cassette with a 42 chainring which makes sense as the gearinch differences between gears are similar.

All in all, this mullet set is quite versatile!

FrankTuna

Are you still happy with the setup? I have components for either a GRX 1x or Sram AXS mullet build (thats another thread lol)

if I go Shimano, I'm thinking of using a 9-46 eThriteen cassette, Eagle chain, and Wolftooth chainring compatible with both Shimano 11 and Sram 12 speed chains.

Fentuz

I did just under 500km and it works well up and down the muddy hills.

Fentuz

I forgot to say that the extra 2.5% cable push caused by the 0.15mm clearance is not perceptible. The e13 cassette shifting is similar to sram shifting however, it is not as good ad shimano SLX hyperglide which up shift so well.
By looking at machined features, it is obvious and to be fair to e13, the same machining as shimano would be rather difficult as the e13 is monoblock whereas the SLX is done mostly cog by cog.

Fentuz

So, 2 years of e13 cassette 9-46 (511%)... and it works fine, I rode a lot of offroad and for a gravel bike it is very good. I also raced with it and it was fine but, I found that the gear shifting does not like to be rushed.
As I said, in a "normal" cycling condition where I have time to shift and it does not matter if I wait for the gear to shift properly, it is all good.

In racing condition, off road, banging several gears at once under torque, the shifting is not as good as Shimano SLX. Because I wanted the range more than 420%, I was happy to compromise.
However, Sunrace is now making a 11speed cassette 10-46 (half price but 50g heavier). I raced with that and the shifting is the same as the SLX, nice and crisp. It has similar ramp as the Hyperglide system.

Looking at the following cassette, SRam Rival 11-42 (382%), SRam Eagle 10-42 (420%), Shimano SLX 11-46 (418%) , E13 9-46 (511%), Sunrace 10-46 (460%) (and Sora 11-34, acera 11-36, XT 11-34, Sunrace 11-40), other than the e13, all the cassettes have "deep" shifting ramps.
The e13 ramps are 0.45mm deep only when hyperglide/hyperglide like are 0.65mm. The e13 are 2/3 deep which explains why the chain needs more encouragement to go on a bigger cog...


So as I said, for "normal" ride were you need the extra range or for a road orientated wheelset, it is good but for more involved offroad, Sunrace gets my vote.

mattcalifornia

Interesting. I have two E13 cassettes for my gravel bike (9-46 and 9-39). The shifting has always worked fine -- never misses a shift. But it is a little slow and clunky. I just assumed that was a SRAM Rival issue. I never considered the shift ramps. I don't think I'll change cassettes at this point, but will definitely keep this mind for the future.