1st XT Cassette, noisy 11t, design flaw or normal?

Evening guys,

After reading a ton of good reviews for XT cassettes and at the bargain price of £30 bought one for my new 10 speed setup.

Everything is well apart from when in the smallest cog, where the chain makes a lot of noise, adjusted the b screw to 12mm gap for 10spd, tried 6mm too, H and L screws, cable tension the lot, without success.

Upon closer inspection it seems the teeth on the 11t differ to the rest, and go in a sequence, of pointing right, middle, pointing left, middle, and repeat. Possibly ramps to help ease the chain up and down? Can’t say i’ve noticed this on a Sram cassette before, and not sure if this is affecting the chainline hence making it noisy. Heres a quick video…

Rest of the specs all 10speed: X9 shifters, XT front derr, X9 rear derr Type 2.1, Wipperman Connex chain.

I’m half tempted to just buy a Sram 1070 and fit this weekend.

10 speed Shimano and Scram aren’t interchangeable.

Got an XT cassette on my 10 speed sram and all runs fine and dandy. Run a sram chain too. Wonder about the wipperman chain, as everything else you have I do too.

Have run XT cassettes with SRAM 10 speed (X9 & XX) with no issues at all for several years.
It’s the shifters & mechs that aren’t cross compatible, not the cassettes.

@Leku I understand the shifters and mechs arn’t, but cassettes are ok AFAIK?

@Thrustyjust thanks a different chain would be my other option, but never had much joy with Sram chains snapping (9 speed mind) could you have a quick look at your cassette and see if the 11t has teeth pointing left, middle, right?

Ignore me. I could be wrong. It’s the shifters and mechs that aren’t interchangeable. Not certain about cassettes,

Although I am running X9 shifter with XT front derr which appears ok? Didn’t check compat on this just presumed same as 9 speed and ok.

Mines a M771 xt cassette. Looks like they machined the tooth one side and then machine the next the opposite side. Not had an issue with the 10 speed sram chains on 2 of my bikes, probably due to unsplittable and rebuildable chains. My chains a pc 1091.

Have a sram front mech and slx shifter on my Jekyll, all working perfectly

Thanks for looking Thrustyjust,

Same cassette then

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/shimano-xt-m771-10-speed-mtb-cassette/rp-prod52281

and

http://www.connexchain.com/en/product/connex-10sx.html

and 2.1 rear mech,

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/sram-x9-type-21-rear-derailleur/

Is yours a clutch mech? Wonder if clutch torque could be pulling chain and causing it to make a noise as the alternating 11t teeth pass through the links?

Yes, same cassette and mech. Don’t think its a clutch style. Whatever a 2012 Dale F29 comes with. The bike came with a KMC chain, which I swopped to the Sram one. Not because of noise. Seems pretty quiet whatever gears I use to not even think about it to be honest.

When you say 12 & 6 mm gap, do you mean between the jockey and cassette? I set mine at a couple of mil

Doubtful it’s this, but check you’ve got an 11t compatible lockring on there, a 12t one will create problems with how the chain runs on it.

@paladin tried 6mm, then 12mm, for the 10 speed cassettes…

@coatesy thanks yeah definitely 11t lockring.

Is it me or does the first tooth visible in the video look bent? Just looked at mine and yes they’re machined l&r but that actually looks like it’s bent over. Mine are all straight down one edge as far as i can tell.

Noise there is usually down to derailleur setup though. Think you should be on 6mm between the top sprocket and ring as 12mm is for the super dooper sram cassettes. XT cassette will be different so play with it a bit. Shimano spec 5-6mm gap for an xt 11-36.

Ride it and it’ll probably settle down. I’ve had SRAM chains take a couple of minutes to settle down into a new cassette.

Update*

Bought a Sram 1070 to fit tomorrow. As a last chance with the XT cassette redialled everything in from scratch, shifts ok, but still not convinced this is right, even the front chainrings at the start of the video sounds noisy! I remember my 9 speed being relatively silent.

Click for video…

@rickon will try that cheers

@nickdavies i’ve dropped the b adjustment so i’m just at around 5-6mm gap now, still no joy.