I’m planning a 40t expander on an m771 11-36.

Plenty of choices. Questions :

1. How much of a PITA are they without adding a 17t like people say? Am I actually going to sulk and hate it without or is it detail tuning for the demanding?

2. I note E13 on theirs recommend the 40t on an 11-34 but explicitly not on an 11-36 but no one else seems to do this. Comments?

3. If I added an oval front instead of the nice new single I already have would the fabled smoothing help with the jump possible from point 1?

Ta!

1. Its adding a 16T instead of the 17T – both work, 16T works better.

2. 11-36+40T ring is common, and works fine. Don’t know why E13 would say otherwise unless they have something weird about their 40T ring.

3. No, adding an oval ring will likely make point 1 worse not better – best you could realistically hope for is that it has no effect, however my experience is that oval rings make shifting a bit worse not better.

I was thinking of adding a Sunrace MS3 10-Speed Cassette rather than an expander ring and messing around with swapping cogs. I think it might be cheaper as well. Anyone tried it?

Cheers Ben! My bad confusing 16/17. Other than buying a certain brand that ships with one out of the box, is there a good source of these if i decide i need a couple of rides in?

Basically I’m 1x’ing an old HT that’s been knocking around a while to see if it works for me these days as it’s looking increasingly like it’s a decision that I’ll need an answer to in the near future. If I’m really lucky said revived HT will be so wonderful it answers all my dreams even with a non tapered head tube and dropper hostile 27.2 seat tube… 🙂

I tried a 11-36 with a 40t expander, initially without the 15t, then without the 17t, and both were annoying, so I took both the 15t & 17t out and got a 16t, and all is good. The 16t is definitely worth doing IMO.

I’ve just bought the Sunrace 11-40 actually, but I’ve not tried it yet so can’t comment.

3. I run an oval and the comments above still apply.

I’ve added 40t to 11-36t cassettes, and haven’t felt the need to swap the 17t for a 16t.

The odd step is visible on the cassette, but I struggle to notice it when riding TBH.

I find not having a 16T annoying, interested to hear what the Sunrace 11-40 is like

Adding the 16T spreads the ranges more evenly and improves shifting slightly, it’s not essential though. I prefer it, but it’s easy to do afterwards so I wouldn’t stress tbh, you can try it first.

I’d not heard that about E13, maybe they just think it makes for a better gear spread? There’s 2 ways to approach wider ratios, one is to try and spread them more equally and the other is to treat the lowest gear as basically a crawler- like shimano megarange and the like. Probably neither is wrong but I think on 1×10 most people will want a fuller range rather than a more normal 9-speed range and then a really low 10th.

Oy Ben, do you not sell the 16Ts any more?

I didn’t bother fitting a 16T, just dropped whatever one was recommended. What I’ve found is the cog I dropped is my nice cruising gear on flat sections or very small inclines. Either side of that lost gear it’s either way too spinny or a little bit too hard. Not a major pain but I do notice it on long flat sections.

1. i found the 16t to be a terrible option, was noticeably worse at shifting onto and off of.
2. its to do with the shift window locations, both will work, one will be slightly smoother to shift onto
3. no.

for me, especially at this time of the year, i’d drop a front ring size instead if you are looking for lower gears and just wear it all out over the winter months with all the slop and muck, then in the spring buy all new 11 speed XT (or possibly SLX as thats got to go 11 speed early next year i bet.) its MUCH better than any expander.

daver27 – Member

1. i found the 16t to be a terrible option, was noticeably worse at shifting onto and off of.

What cog did you use? OneUp’s own seems to be a bit shit but XT shifts like stock ime (on 3 bikes)

Northwind, it was the one up.
Got 11 speed xtr now, way way way better

@northwind yes we do – http://shop.birdmtb.com/spares-and-components/genuine-xt-10-speed-16t-sprocket.html. FWIW the 16T doesn’t make shifting all that much better,its still a big jump for a small cog to drag up, but the change in ratios is very noticable. Also depends on the 16T cog I think though. The XT ones seem to work a lot better than the aftermarket ones (like… a lot). Thats why we started importing them as the ones we could get with expander rings were ****. They arent perfect, but they seem to offer better than 17T shifting and the cadence is better matched to the progression in the cassette, which is the main thing I think.

Ohhhh- I can’t work the internet basically. Cheers!

I’ve never had any problems with shifting on a 11-36 + 40 setup on a medium cage and have always just dropped the 17t. I’ve found the hope expander is better the the E13 as it seems to last longer. That said I’ve just moved to a praxis 11-40t 10 speed cassette and shifting feels smoother. So if the sunrace one is as good it’s £30 cheaper and not much heavier, and still cheaper and lighter than an xt cassette and expander.

Done a SRAM conversion with Hope 40T, no other cogs replaced shifted fine, there was a noticeable gap/jump but that never bothered me.
Running XT with One Up 42t, replacement ring and Rad cage. Again works well, can’t really tell if there is much of a step, range is good and shifting is smooth.

Finally went to SRAM GX 10-42 my current preferred option.

Just done a week with a 11-40 Sunrace. Very impressed. Better ratios and shifting compared to a XT 11-36 with a 16t and a Works 40t expander.

If your cassette is worn then I’d recommend the Sunrace.

[this is on a XT mech with a RADr cage fitted]

i just added a cheap superstar 40t expander to a second hand XT 11-36 10 speed cassette and dropped the 17t.
Don’t miss the 17t (at least i think that’s what i must have removed?) set-up was literally just two twists of the b-stop screw and been running faultlessly for the last year.