[Closed] If a singlespeeder wanted gears...

If your friend has used single speed for many years why would he need to go from one gear to a dinner plate cassette.

A close ratio block would be nicer and it is not as though they would miss the super low gear.

No need, just curious!

Can you mix SRAM shifters/mech with Shimano chainset etc?

If he's getting old and frail, has he considered an eBike?
🙂

That's an expensive experiment for someone who (IMHO like me or any other SSer) is 99% likely to go through all the faff of putting gears on, doing one ride and thinking FFS why did I do this?!?

And go straight back to SS.

If he *really*  wants to try gears pick up a cheap used wheel, 8 speed shifter mech and cassette for probably sub £50 and get the itch scratched*

*And put away again for another ten years...

Oh come on, this is not in the spirit of pissing money away to save 20 grammes* and have something shiny! 🙂

iz disappoint.

* I know, I know

A solution to your friend's unfortunate predicament (you have sent him/her a condolences/sympathy/MTFU card?) could be to get an alfine hub? It might not last indefinitely when driven by your friends manly singlespeeding legs but it would at least last as long as a cassette/chain and not need quite as many bits.

Alternatively, you can get the GX cassette/chain/mech/shifter for about £230, or stick with Shimano might be a bit cheaper once you include the wheel.

If you wanted cheapest and just a little more flat speed/hill easiness, you could get a 9 speed cassette, 9 speed mech, lose biggest/smallest gears until your reduced cassette fits on your SS freehub body. shifter, do your limit screws and Bob's yer dad.

I suggest a nice stake,some rope,combustible material,and some form of ignition,perhaps matches,lighter,flaming brand,etc,

hopefully,your,er,'friend' will see sense,before he needs to be made more intimate with said collection,just saying like 😉

I always wanted to do that with a hope SS hub. I think you could get 6 or 7 from aa 9 speed hub on.

I'd put the Alfine 8 speed wheel back on. Just saying.

My friend likes the fact his bike is stupid light and has no truck with the idea of a two-tonne Alfine rear wheel! This is for XC racing.

The cut-down cassette idea on the other hand, that could be interesting.

Answer to earlier point, SRAM and Shimano are not directly compatible at this point except for the NX cassette- otherwise the freehubs needed are different and the cable pulls also different. Some have had success with shims to alter effective cable movement but this is suck it and see and not likely to work as well as either native configuration.  At a higher level, you could use a Shimano shifter and mech with a SRAM cassette on appropriate freehub and vice-versa.

If weight is an issue it’s well worth checking relative cassette numbers. None of them are as heavy relative to a 10sp 11-36 as some would have you believe, but the lighter cassettes get scarily expensive.

As above, if your friend is coming from singlespeed and is purely curious as opposed to no longer able to push SS, then there are other options that might bear investigation, including most obviously 1x10 with a standard cassette as 11-34, 11-36 ought to be fine anyway or possibly a close ratio rig based on either a DH 7 sp or some hybrid of Road cassette and mtb shifting.

Not seen, but looked at pic f the hubs. Can your friend not bung on a few sprockets from any old cassette. The gaps will be no worse than other 1x set ups. get 6 on and its as good as real mountain biking used to be.

I have a Hope SS hub, managed to get a XT 10 speed cassette on by dropping 3 sprockets.

Went back to SS with that bike though.

Don't bother with a 10 speed rear mech - you will quickly find that it gets increasingly tricky putting on a sprocket of more than 40t without also adding something like a Goat Link.

11 speed Shimano rear mech has same pull ratio as 10 speed, so you can mix-n-match shifters and mech.

I don't know anything about SRAM.

Nothing wrong with switching from SS to geared, it's faster in most circumstances.

But SS is nice nonetheless.

I'd like to echo the comments above as a singlespeeder and Alfine owner...

If the friend is used to singlespeed, he will not need one of those wimpy dinner plate cassettes 🙂  34:34 is probably half the gear s/he is currently pushing uphill.

Alfines are lovely and fit nicely on singlespeed frames as they don't need a tensioner (assuming its a hardtail).  They also retain the quiet and low maintenance appeal of singlespeed, and you can run your chains until they have stretched more than an elastic band, so long term they are cheap to run 🙂

Alfine.

Works well, no hassle, seems like the obvious solution, no?

Go second hand and resell for similar cash if a decent purchase.

Trouble with an Alfine is twofold, in my experience - this coming from riding a singlespeed perspective.

The weight - and you can do bugger all about that.

The slow and spongy engagement and there’s not a lot you can do about that either. If your riding doesn’t involve a lot of ratcheting and timing to get up steps and stuff then it might not bother you as much as it bothered me.

I went through the whole fitting a six speed cassette thing too, thinking that because I’m an old man now, I’d prefer it over riding a single speed.

But, funny thing is, I didn’t, it just meant that I started riding slightly differently even though I know that I didn’t need to. And I like not having gear choice as a thing to think about.

I’ve probably wasted a shed load of money building up bikes that, if I’m honest with myself, I don’t get nearly as much pleasure out of and aren’t half as good for me physically and mentally as my singlespeeds. I’d tell your “friend” to save his money and and stick with what he has - because he’ll probably come back to it sooner rather than later.

I bought a single speed in October and fast realised that although I love the idea, the reality is that I'm not fit enough for it.  Gears have got me riding the bike more.  Might go back to single in Winter once I'm fitter and healthier.

My bike has removable sliding dropouts, so I bought one with a gear hanger, as the SS one doesn't have it.

I bought an FSA team issue chain, £10 off planet X

An SLX 11-42 cassette, £45ish I think

A used GX RD and shifter off here for very little, £30 maybe?  I forget.

My chainring is already Narrow Wide and it's got a 52mm chainline so works fine.

Added some cable outer for the gears and a couple of zip ties to stop it flapping around.

If buying new, I'd have gone on CRC and looked at SLX stuff throughout.

You can't mix SRAM and Shimano RD and Shifters.

You can use any MTB 11 speed cassette and any MTB 11 speed chain.

Narrow wide rings aren't expensive, if you don't have one, Uber do them in 4x104bcd for peanuts, or look on Amazon and eBay.  China ones can be had from as little as a tenner if you can wait for post.

Not sure if your driver will take a full 11 speed cassette, don't worry if not, wheels can be had cheap used in 29.  I'm 27+ and wheels in 135qr for that are difficult to find so I ended up using mine, but I do have an El Guapo rattlesnake hub with Shimano driver ready to swap out at some point too, cost me £30 at the time I think, they're £50 with an XD driver at the moment on Planet X.

SRAM cassette needs a wheel with a SRAM driver unless you opt for an NX one, but they're hefty.  The lighter SRAM cassette go down to 10 tooth cogs on the smallest but also need that XD driver.

Hope that's useful to your friend.  😊

Top stuff folks, cheers - exactly the type of info my friend was looking for! This for an XC race bike, so a hub gear's a non-starter, and SS is absolutely fine 90% of the time. Just curious to see what it's like with gears on certain courses, gears and 26" wheels are a long-distant memory now.

If weight is an issue it’s well worth checking relative cassette numbers. None of them are as heavy relative to a 10sp 11-36 as some would have you believe, but the lighter cassettes get scarily expensive.

That is a bit like saying a Landrover Defender isn't heavy because it has the same number of gears as a Ferrari 575.

X1/XX1 etc are lighter than a 10s SLX cassette*, yes.  Everything else has it's own gravitational field.

*with an alloy lockring

As a sometimes part time SSer I'd say get a good range of gears or don't bother. 10s can give you the range, but don't go for just 11-36 unless your rides really are that flat that that would work.

If you're having gears you're in a different mindset and you don't want to tolerate being in the wrong gear the way you're forced to on a SS.

I think I’d look to get a wheel with an xd driver so you’ve got theniption of getting a cassette with a 10 / 9 cog highest gear (Sram 10 / e13 9).

Chain wise use what’s cheapest in 11 speed probably. I like the Sram pc1051 as it has some stainless parts in it so rusts less easily than lesser chains.

Then go with whichever 11 speed mech and shifter is cheapest - either Shimano SLX or Sram Nx / GX. You can’t mix and match though - the shifter and mech need to be the same mech and both 11 speed as fast as I’m aware.

With the cassette the GX 10-42 works well for me. Equally - if you got a wheel without an xd driver then I’d be looking at a sunrace one I think.