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  • 10 speed rear mech on a 9 speed system, is it possible?
  • sic_nick
    Full Member

    I am currently building up an On One 456SS and want to put on one of those clutch mechs that are available on the 10 speed groups but if I replace the jockey wheels for some older and wider 9 speed ones it should work as a 9 speed mech shouldn’t it? I presume Shimano still have the same cable pull:travel ratio as before or am I going to have issues. I just feel the clutch mech will be a good thing on a burly hardtail to try and limit or even prevent me dropping the chain, I still have an old DCD on my other bike and that does a great job keeping the chain on. I will be running a 3×9 setup too.

    I have run 8 speed rears on 9 speed systems and vice versa in the past and it has been fine so if anyone else has any experience on this I would appreciate it.

    Posted 10 years ago
    njee20
    Free Member

    I presume Shimano still have the same cable pull:travel ratio as before or am I going to have issues.

    You presume wrong sadly, they changed it on 10 speed MTB stuff.

    You can make it work with a 9 speed SRAM shifter (some say it’ll work out of the box, others have had success adding a 5.5mm spacer under the cable clamp bolt). But it won’t work with a Shimano 9 speed shifter.

    No reason to change jockey wheels regardless.

    Posted 10 years ago
    sic_nick
    Full Member

    I presumed I would have to put 9 speed jockey wheels on to accommodate the wider 9 speed chain running through the cage.

    Posted 10 years ago
    njee20
    Free Member

    Nope, they’ll be fine.

    Posted 10 years ago
    sic_nick
    Full Member

    Bit of a moot point though if the derailleur isn’t going to line up with the cogs though.

    Posted 10 years ago
    njee20
    Free Member

    Unless you use a SRAM shifter and a bit of bodgery.

    Posted 10 years ago
    sic_nick
    Full Member

    I was hoping to just get the rear mech and not have to get a new shifter too as everything else is Shimano so will not work with the Sram cable pull.

    Posted 10 years ago
    njee20
    Free Member

    Eh? If you’re changing the shifter there is nothing else to work? You could get a pair, the LH shifter will work fine with a Shimano mech, or just the RH one, in which case you’re changing the mech anyway!

    Not ideal, and quite honestly if you’re changing your mech and shifter you may as well change your chain and cassette and just go 10 speed without bodging!

    Posted 10 years ago
    sic_nick
    Full Member

    I never said I was changing the shifter asall my other bikes are 9 speed as are the shifters I have for this bike so I was looking to only be getting the clutch rear mech to put on this otherwise I’m looking at buying new mech, shifter and cassette which I don’t want to do as this wheelset will be shared between two bikes thus increasing what it would cost to make it all work as 10 speed.

    Posted 10 years ago
    njee20
    Free Member

    I never said I was changing the shifter asall my other bikes are 9 speed as are the shifters I have for this bike so I was looking to only be getting the clutch rear mech to put on this otherwise I’m looking at buying new mech, shifter and cassette which I don’t want to do as this wheelset will be shared between two bikes thus increasing what it would cost to make it all work as 10 speed.

    Right, but that can’t be done, so you can either:

    – bodge it with a 9 speed SRAM shifter
    – go 10 speed on both bikes
    – not have a clutch mech

    Posted 10 years ago
    barrykellett
    Free Member

    This actually works:
    http://www.pinkbike.com/u/SupraShin/blog/How-to-convert-SHIMANO-Shadow-Plus-RD-into-9-speed.html

    Posted 10 years ago
    gonzy
    Free Member

    correct me if i’m wrong but shimano 10sp uses dyna-sys technology so the cable pull ratio is different to normal shimano so it wont work with 9sp.
    therefore unless you’re prepared to do a bit of bodging then your 9sp shifter wont work properly with a 10sp clutch mech.
    as far as i can tell the internal width on all shimano chains is the same its just the outer plate width that is different so you should be able to run a 9sp chain on a 10sp rear mech without having to change the jockey wheels.
    however if you look around you can pick up some good bargains for new 10sp kit.
    i paid £25 for my slx clutch mech, £22 for a zee shifter and £20 for my cassette and chain which meant i’d upgraded to 10sp for less than £70

    Posted 10 years ago
    sic_nick
    Full Member

    Problem solved, been on CRC and ordered a whole 10 speed mech, shifter, cassette and chain for just over £110, mixture of XT/SLX so I know it’s all going to work now.

    Posted 10 years ago
    sic_nick
    Full Member

    barrykellet, as much as that zip-tie arrangement might work I wouldn’t like to put that much trust in a zip-tie that thin as I have seen them fail quite easily and I dont really want that happening on a bike.

    Posted 10 years ago
    barrykellett
    Free Member

    Very true Nick.
    Which is why I have invested in a 2nd hand SRAM road shifter to get a clutch mech on my CX single ring set up after much faffing round.

    You actually have 7 very usable gears out of a Dynasys rear mech on a non dynasys shifter/cassette. It wont go near the top 2 or 3 cogs though.

    In saying that…

    You could use the cable tie arrangement to get the thing working and then decide where to drill the cable hole like this guy has done:
    http://www.ridemonkey.com/threads/anyone-using-9-speed-sram-shifter-with-shimano-10-speed-derailleur.257028/#post-3876561

    Posted 10 years ago
    sic_nick
    Full Member

    I’ve already bought the correct stuff to make it 10 speed now, no faffing or bodging, might just have to take my other modern bike to 10 speed too but I’ll wait until next year to do that as it’s not going to really see the trails over winter i’ll use the singlespeed or the 456 for mud plugging duties.

    Posted 10 years ago
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