is it possible to buy only the small 11t ring which is separate from the main body? I use it far too much and only having a few teeth it wears rapidly

Your question needed to be: can you buy just the smallest sprocket.

One answer is in your second sentence – leave the worn one on and it will teach you to use others.

Yes, you can buy XTR, and I believe XT ones.

Probably, what cassette do you have?

Madison at least used to list them.

ive got a few you can have if you want? i never wear just the weeny one. in fact i never use it!

As an example an 11T from an XT M760 9 speed cassette would be £3.99 RRP.

The cassette is XT, not sure of the model. Couldn't see anything on Madison. it would make sense, seing as they are going to wear down quicker than the others and they are detatchable from the main body

Tracknicko – Yes please, they would be useful! i like to stomp in that gear. are there different standards?
Mister P – where did you find that?

mine would all be sram mind…

The one I found will fit any XT 9 speed so if you ask your LBS to order 1ZA 1100 from Madison you will be sorted.

Bloody hell, I need to learn to wear out the small replaceable ones, I always wear out the 17 tooth sprocket which is slap bang in the middle of an XT carrier…

What gear are you sitting in to wear it out? Are you hammering around in big ring and smallest sprocket all the time 😯

Tracknicko – No idea if it'd be compatible 🙁 thanks for the offer tho!
Mister P – Thanks very much!

The short answer is yes…

Scroll down to the Shimano Standard Combinations table, bit old, possibly out of date but certainly relevant..

If you run a 11-32 M770 cassette then the 16T is replacable. So you just need to ride in one higher gear 13FM.

13thfloormonk – 44t was out of action for a while and theres a looong road trip to local trails. To be fair the other smallest sprockets are showing some wear too but are not as shark toothed