The missus is building up a gravelly kinda bike. We have a spare 105 5800 long cage rear mech floating around which will do admirably. Officially max cog size is 32T. Will we squeeze anything bigger in, in the real world? 34T, 36T...?
(and remind me Shimano 11S road and mountain cassettes - are they interchangeable...? I think so, so long as you use a spacer if it's a road freehub body)
Thanks,
Jon
I’ve got a Wolf Tooth converter thingy which will take it to 40t. 18 Bikes have them. Think I mention it in my Cotic TNR blog. IIRC without the converter it would just make 34t.
Gotcha, thanks. As much as anything wondering how far you can push the stock set up. (E is doing the Dirty Reiver, so that's the initial challenge)
I still need to buy you coffee & cake...
theres a video on YouTube of someone flipping the b-screw around in the mech and getting 36t running fine. 34 should be easily doable.
In terms of cassettes, 11 speed Road cassette is same width as an 11 speed mtb cassette plus spacer. Either will fit on an 11 speed Road hub. The 11 speed mtb cassette will fit on a normal mtb hub, but a road cassette won't.
Don't think the capacity matters much for 1x11 does it as there's no double up front? Used 34 cassette no problem with med cage 105 [and short cage I think] - single ring up front. Recall it seemed on the limit of the der clearing the big sprocket, so 36 might be too much. Not tried, though.
I asked about this the other day and the road link that sok mentions is the answer if you want some big sprockets at the back.
I ran a 10sp Ultegra long cage mech with an 11-36 cassette for about 6 months, shifting wasn't perfect but was perfectly usable. I just tightened the B tension bolt all the way in and put a M5 nylock nut on the end of the bolt to give better contact with the tab on the hanger. It is quite particular about chain length to keep the guide pulley away from the cassette so you may have to play around a bit.
I'm now trying a 9sp XT mech and I'm undecided as yet if it's any better!
As Garry says, main issue with the Wolf Tooth converter is by using a MTB cassette and road sized chain rings you exceed the range of the mech. In practice what that means is that everything works but the mech can't take up all the chain slack when in granny and the smaller half of cassette cogs. This isn't the worst problem you can have - I've not had an issue tying up the chain, it's just slaps about so can be a bit annoying. But it's avoidable as this range of gears overlaps with big ring and the top half of the cassette.
I was very glad of the teeny weeny gears when we biked packed in the Alps so was well worth it. Now I'm back in the UK, at some point I'll get around to swapping my freehub body as I don't need the gears and so the chain slap is just irritating without any advantages.
I have one running an xt 11/36 rear cassette on a 105 fine.