Is this possible?
I’m guessing it could be made to fit onto the splines without too much trouble, but then I suppose it would need to be held tight somehow… maybe by cannibalising the center part from an old worn-out XD cassette?
Any ideas or examples would be welcome.

No.

Not even close to possible. It’s a different size for starters.

Really can’t see that working as the Sram cassette screws directly onto the XD Driver and its all one unit and the splines are different anyway

More to the point why would you??

If it were possible I imagine the machining/filing/tapping required wouldn’t be worth the hassle to save around £60. One of SRAM’s priorities when developing the driver would have been to make a bodge almost impossible I imagine.

Damn. Thanks anyway.

Why? Because I’m putting together a cheap bike for the Mrs and I’ve been offered some free wheels, but they won’t fit the groupset I already have it seems.

Why? Because I’m putting together a cheap bike for the Mrs and I’ve been offered some free wheels, but they won’t fit the groupset I already have it seems.

What are the wheels/group-set? Shirley it’ll be easier/simpler to purchase the correct free-hub

Easier/simpler – yes.
Cheaper – no.
🙂

SRAM aren’t daft. When they over-engineer stuff they also go out of their way to make it incompatible.

Want to change crankset? You’ll need a new BB as well because of the pointless and stupid 24/22 taper.

Want to change cassette? You’ll need a whole new freehub (if not hub?)

All manufacturers do it (why ten splines vs eight on a pedal axle), but SRAM do seem to combine pointless extra complexity with in-built compatibility traps better than most.

packer – Member
Easier/simpler – yes.
Cheaper – no.

Someone might have a spare kicking about and be feeling generous, you won’t know until you ask

Want to change crankset? You’ll need a new BB as well because of the pointless and stupid 24/22 taper.

fit a cheap adapter, it’s a 5s job
XD addressed the fact that we had been going on with tech based on whatever was done before.
Having spent a while filing splines on shimano style freehubs I like XD and hope it becomes the new standard.
For real proprietary crap take a look at Specialized.

Easier/simpler – yes.
Cheaper – no.

I bet it will be by the time you wreck a cassette & freehub trying to bodge it.

SRAM aren’t daft. When they over-engineer stuff they also go out of their way to make it incompatible.

Want to change crankset? You’ll need a new BB as well because of the pointless and stupid 24/22 taper.

Want to change cassette? You’ll need a whole new freehub (if not hub?)

All manufacturers do it (why ten splines vs eight on a pedal axle), but SRAM do seem to combine pointless extra complexity with in-built compatibility traps better than most.

Do you understand why the XD driver is the way it is?

Hardly a cynical ploy, just a different way of doing the same job that allows for a 10t cog – so far it seems better than the standard freehub and the one-piece cassettes are way less fiddly.

Do you understand why the XD driver is the way it is?

No, I prefer to vent on here as an alternative to trying to understand it. What of it?

I’m a fan of XD for practical reasons, and generally find SRAM stuff to be well engineered but that it frequently suffers when installed by people that assume all bike parts are the same. People trying to ‘fix’ the gap on a GXP crank by adding spacers must have made SRAM rich in BB sales. 😉

OP, assuming you have a SRAM 1x group there and an old Shimano 9sp style free hub, your options from most expense to least are to get another wheel, rebuild the wheel with a different hub, swap out the free hub for an XD driver if possible *or* from slight left field, buy another 11sp cassette that fits Shimano. That gives you all the Shimano options or the SRAM NX as options. None of them will let you have the 10t top gear, but they’ll work fine with the rest of the setup.