I’m considering converting from 2×9 to 1×10. Or possibly 1×11.

I have 26″ wheels, with 22/32 front rings with a bashguard mounted onto a Middleburn square taper 104 bcd crank, 11/32 rear SRAM cassette on a DT 240s hub. Rear mech is a 9 speed Shimano XTR short cage.

So… I know I’ll need to change the rear shifter but can I keep the rear mech? I’m uncertain if the larger cassette will foul it or not, or whether or not its capacity will allow it to deal with the new set up. It’s a lovely mech, it would be a shame to retire it to a different bike.

And what ring/ cassette combination will allow me to match my current ratios. Knees are often reminding me that hills are best ridden down and not up, so the 22X32 or easier equivalent is a must.

Are front rings 9/10/11 speed interchangeable? Thick thin- is it worth it? Do I really need a clutch mech….?

TBH, it is so confusing I have almost given up but the drivetrain is coming to the point where I need to replace chain, rings and cassette so it seems an appropriate moment to convert should it be an advantage to do so.

Your thoughts and advice would be most welcome.

9 speed rear mechs are not compatible with 10 or 11 speed unless you want to bodge it to do 10 speed, but it doesn’t sound like it’s worth the aggro. You’ll need a new mech; it doesn’t need to be a clutch one, but I recall when I did it the non clutch one wasn’t really much cheaper. The clutch does make it quieter too which is an added bonus; I notice the added rattling if I’ve left it turned off. I’m pretty sure short cages are fine with single chainrings as they don’t have to soak up the 22/44 difference on top of the range of the cassette.

Front rings are the same across speeds as far as I can tell; I kept my 9sp 32T for a while before replacing it with a narrow/wide when it wore out.

I changed from 32/22, 11-32 to 32, 11-36; I notice the slight loss of really low gears on trips to the mountains so I might try an expander ring at some point, but for most things it’s fine.

Simple route
1×10 – Buy 10sp Rear Shifter, Mech, Cassette and NW Chain ring.
Clutch mechs are just about standard and NW just works.
Next level 1×10 with expander to get you 11-40 or 11-42
Depending on where you shop you could probably get 1×11 for a similar outlay.
Shimano works with normal freehub but limits you to 11-40or42.
SRAM with XD – available for most hubs except shimano (but check first) gives you 10-42. Got 11-42 and 10-42 the extra is there and nice to have – means you can run a slightly smaller chain ring for the same top end.
The maths bit

Personally – SRAM GX is probably the sweet spot for price/performance

Depending on how you ride at the moment and how you use your gears chain ring could be an issue on the crank, 30t is sometimes harder to fit on some. How often are you down the 22/32 end of things?

Thank you all, so much.

I’m at the 22/32 end too often unfortunately.

Can you tell me where you got ‘the maths bit’ chart from?

Cheers and beers, Ambrose.

it was on another forum, just downloaded it and saved it as it neatly explains the spread of gear ratios (Simple Front/Rear) it came out with the XX1 though there are more available online.

As a rough guide though 32/42 should be a lower gear than 22/28 (Assume thats your second lowest gear) and 32/11 will be the same as your current top end. I reckon if you could fit 30t up front and 10-42 out back you would probably come up with a (nearly) equivalent range

Before it’s suggested there are the new 2×11 set ups though in the end it does just look like an expensive & heavy version of what 2×10 can already do well.