Cyclocross race set up 1×10 with clutched rear mech

How about di2 xtr 1×11 on dura ace di2 hydro shifters? Someone’s bound to do it.

Been running 10speed cassette/9 speed mtb derailleur and n-stop/bash guard for 2 seasons with no drops.

I’ve just experimented running 1×9 with a NW ring, with no clutch mech or catcher and the chain dropped pretty much on every descent. Possibly too much side to side movement of the chain, being a wider 9 speed chain? So, gone back to running a lightweight chain catcher on the FS.

Just built up a new CX bike with SRAM shifters, 11-34 cassette, 42 Absolute Black chainring and SRAM type 2 X-9 rear mech. Done about 500 miles on it so far, so early days, but running very sweet, totally silent with no spare chain slapping the chainstay.

Also found a sweet bodge, to remove the front shifter innards from the left hand shifter housing, so removed that too which saves a little extra weight.

That giant is very nice, and built for racing. I’d love the range of a big mtb cassette out back for long mixed terrain days light touring or blasts over moors.

Is it for race use? I reckon that skews the priorities a bit since it changes a chain drop from a tiny inconvenience to a total bollocks.

It is indeed for race use, hence my hesitation. I’m currently running 1×10 on the MTB with a clutch mech and N/W chainring with no drops, and the current CX bike setup is 1×10 with a regular chainring and mech, but with an n-gear jump stop and lightweight bash.

I’m still wondering if I might drop the chain occasionally placing the bike down over barriers etc and so the bash might still be necessary. I think the only way to tell will be to get it built a bit before the season and rider it a good few times before the first race. RaceFace chainring arrived today, so now I just need to wait for the new shifter to arrive before I can get rebuilding.

It’s not intended for racing but this combo works well imo. Some aren’t a fan of bar-end shifters, I like them, compared to the SS CX and MTB I ride regularly any gearing is a bonus.. worth the trade-off for the brakes I think. I work for Pinnacle / opinion bias disclaimer : )
New SRAM CX11 is good too, dedicated 1×11 + hydros.

2015 Arkose 2 with clutch X7 mech.

Bit of a thread resurrection but I was doing a search for this kind of stuff and this came up.

I’ve been running a RF narrow wide 42t with 11-32t and against all advice an Ultegra medium cage mech all summer for training. I’ve been over some pretty bumpy trails but not had one chain drop, with no chain guard. I’m going to be racing on this set up soon and I’m starting to have second thoughts on a) ruining my nice Ultegra mech and b) medium cage in’t going to cut it in the slop.

I was looking at two options 1) cheaper 105 11 speed short cage mech and hope it fits my 11-32t (should do with 1×11 setup) or 2) more expensive getting the new XTR 11 speed clutch mech. Does anyone know if this will work with Ultegra 6800 road shifters?

pixelmix – Member
Please do barrykellet.

Birdage – your experience sounds positive, but I see you are running an n-gear jump stop. Are you not running a bash? I’m keen to lose my bash as I find that mud gets jammed between bash and chainring in really muddy, grassy races. Hmm, maybe I should leave the n-gear as a fail safe on the inside, even with a narrow/wide chainring.

First race yesterday.
Worked flawlessly for the majority of the race, and a very fast race too. Didn’t miss a bigger ring at all. 38t was plenty for it.

Unfortunately in my battle with one guy, he was hopping the boards and I was running them, big time to be gained or lost there. Tried to recover the gap on the last lap and as we came together he nipped ahead of a lapped rider and I got stuck. Gave it all my beanz after getting past and launched a roll down at full pelt, the landing was rough, the chain came off!

Rider error. Lost 8 seconds of stopped time plus whatever time getting back up to speed. Wouldn’t have happened with a Clutch mech on there to be honest so I am a bit peeved. Think I will give it another chance. maybe fit a chain catcher on the inside to halve the possibility? Though if it is dropping off I guess a chain catcher will just stop it going inside and push it off the outside instead?

Wouldn’t have happened with a Clutch mech on there to be honest so I am a bit peeved

To be fair, you don’t know that. An N Gear Jump Stop (or similar) will help if it’s coming off the top, but if it’s doing that then a clutch won’t really help either – that’s only adding tension on the bottom run of the chain after all.

Well, in theory, it tensions the whole system doesn’t it? if you pull the bottom run then the top run should be similarly tensioned. The issue in a crash is that you can spin the cranks/etc quickly enough to loosen the tension for a short moment but possibly long enough to unship the chain.

njee20 – Member

To be fair, you don’t know that. An N Gear Jump Stop (or similar) will help if it’s coming off the top, but if it’s doing that then a clutch won’t really help either – that’s only adding tension on the bottom run of the chain after all.

I suppose I don’t know for sure, but I have had a narrow wide + XT clutch on the XC race bike all year and hit a lot of things a lot harder than I hit that.

Will browse the usual places for a pair of SRAM Apex or Rival shifters for as cheap as I can, and until such times just use the set up as is. I was only ever competing for a top 10 placing so I certainly didn’t lose the race over it.

Wee update.
Seen this:
http://www.pinkbike.com/u/SupraShin/blog/How-to-convert-SHIMANO-Shadow-Plus-RD-into-9-speed.html

And decided to test it out. Stuck a Zee mech on with some cable ties as shown and low and behold, it does actually seem like it could work. Very fiddly and the cable ties I have on aren’t really super strong – but I managed to get the thing covering the full 9 cogs out back and reasonably good shifting across the majority of them. A bit of fine tuning using stronger ties and I reckon it will work.

I can’t decide whether its a suitable set up for racing though! In my mind it is risky, but are the ties actually under much load?

I discovered that blog entry while looking further into the drilling method linked to earlier in the thread. Perhaps working out the pivot point for the cable using ties could show you exactly where to drill the hole for a more permanent fix?