I’m going to 1×10 from my usual 3×9 and all I need to know is do I have to have a short cage mech or can I get away with a medium ? . I’ll have a 34t raceface narrow wide ring up front and either a x9 or xo 10 speed type 2 mech at the rear . The cassette is a sram 11/36 . So I’d appreciate any advice from you chaps in the know . Thank you

Medium is fine. I Don’t think you’d get away with a short with your set up.

Thanks Frankie I can look out for a medium cage mech now

You’d be fine with short

FYI it’s not about needing a shorter cage for a smaller number of chainrings but rather the other way around. A big chainring will require a long chain which creates a lot of slack when on a smaller chainring, which a long cage takes care of. As the shorter cage is less likely to get mashed by rocks you usually want to go as short as you can.

Unless all of SRAMs short cage mechs are made for road (DH) cassettes, which I very much doubt they are, it will work just fine with your setup as that’s what they’re specifically made for.

It depends partly on the bike, some full suss designs have a lot of chain growth. I put a Saint short cage with an 11-34 cassette on my big bike and the mech couldn’t deal with the chaingrowth (if it was slack enough to use the lower gears without risking pulling the mech off, the chain hung loose in the high gears).

sorry , should have said its a 2010 spesh fsr xc expert medium size and i havent bought the rear mech yet . Also are type 2 mechs really worth the extra expense ?

If you aren’t running a guide (I’d assume not with the chainring choice) then you need a clutch mech. They are much quieter though, in any case.

It depends partly on the bike, some full suss designs have a lot of chain growth.

Aah, my apologies, I completely forget about this factor. You’re absolutely right of course.

Been back on HT only for like a week and already forgot how to think like a FS owner apparently. 🙂

Its to do with the capacity of the mech. I think its (Big sprocket – Little sprocket) + (Big chainring – Little chainring) compared to what the mech will have as a quoted maximum.

Longer cages have more capacity to take up slack.

I’ve run long, medium and short cages on 1 x 10 set ups on full suss before now all fine, and you shouldn’t have any issues with capacity. More important to get the chain length right to accomodate chain growth when the suspension compresses.

According to SRAM World, short cage rear mechs are for 11/28 cassettes.
I think that’s prob the same in Shimano world.

Ah, yes, I think in my mind I was currently running a short cage, whereas I’m actually running a medium and really I should be running a long cage on 11-36 rear / 24/38 front.

I’d stay away from short cage on an mtb – just doesn’t have that much benefit. Does SRAM WiFi(?) for road bikes cope with bigger sprockets or is it essentially just a longer cage mech?

According to the capacity formula, short cage should be fine, and on a hard tail it is fine (I run short cage clutch, 34t narrow/wide, 11-36 on my hard tail). However on a full sus you need to account for the rear suspension also. Technically I found it’s fine on my full sus but I was getting grindy noises on compression and trouble shifting at times. When I went for a clutch mech I changed back to a medium cage and it’s all smooth (full sus also has the same 34t/11-36 set up).

In fact I’d say a clutch kind of dispenses with the need to go shorter as it’s retaining tension where possible.

Oh, and go for an X9 Type 2 over an X0. It’s a fraction of the price and does the same job. The X0 is just slightly lighter but performs the same. Break an X0 mech and it’s getting v.expensive. However X0 cranks and brakes are worth the money.

Deadkenny , thanks pal you make a lot of sense .

Crapjumper, look at my thread here for more advice.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/sram-x9-10-speed-shortcage-rear-mech-casette-compatibility

Been running 1×10 36/32 largest gear with an slx medium cage mech & then a zee mech. Couldn’t notice any difference between them, both worked great.