Tried to figure out why my Suito indexed poorly last night, turns out they use non-standard 45 mm spacing between the cassette seat of the freehub body and the end of the thru axle adapter (drawing above), it should be 46 mm.

You could use one of their included 1 mm cassette shims on your bike cassette, but if you don’t want to change your chain line and if using a thru axle you can shim the thru axle adapter on the Suito instead with a washer like this:

What cassette are you using? Sounds like you’re running a 9speed width free hub with a narrower cassette (eg shimano 10speed).

And think of all the watts you’ll save by having a cassette that fits.

Thanks for your insightful suggestion. Running 11 speed, cassettes are the same.

I’ve never looked into solving the issue, but the indexing is off on my suito when changing from wheel to turbo.

Had similar issue on an Elite Direto, I used the supplied spacer designed for 9 speed and added 1/2 turn on barrel adjuster.

What I wonder is why the heck did Elite do 45 mm spacing when the standard is 46 mm?

Odd to need a spacer on a road 11, usually need a spacer for anything else on a road 11 freehub.

I take it the cassette is actually snug on the freehub without the need of a spacer?

The freehub length of circa 36.5mm tallys for road 11, the 45mm you mention though would give a smaller distance to the freehub seat, not longer, so shimming the cassette end would push it further still to the DS.(about 2mm total). [which is to say the opposite of your solution of shimming the thru axle if I understand correctly]

The poor shifting should be addressable by re indexing your mech though? Or is this a concern with a 1mm variance in chain line?

Shimming the thru axle end will simply push your dropouts wide by 1mm, this will “fix” the chain line I guess.

What I wonder is why the heck did Elite do 45 mm spacing when the standard is 46 mm?

The same reason mavic always made their hubs longer, that dt and shimano don’t have identical sizing etc. The standard is a manufacturer’s standard not an iso spec.

The poor shifting should be addressable by re indexing your mech though? Or is this a concern with a 1mm variance in chain line?

Shimming the thru axle end will simply push your dropouts wide by 1mm, this will “fix” the chain line I guess.

I take the bike out of the trainer a lot and onto the road, don’t want to reindex every time. Not a huge problem but annoying, shimming the thru axle adapter should offer an easy and elegant solution.

Seems a sensible solution in that case

I totally accept there’s a standard. But I’ve had more variation than that in lateral cassette positioning between some rear wheels.

is it an older trainer ? Sounds like it’s not an 11sp freehub – they used to be shoter, didn’t they ?

https://bikerumor.com/2012/05/01/11-speed-road-bike-hubs-versus-10-speed-tech-breakdown/

This is common in many frames/ smart trainers.

On my Arkose (qr axle) on Kickr Core you can see the mech and hanger actually bend in at an angle when the qr is torqued up.

Then I had an obvious epiphany, align the mech hanger with the tool whilst on the turbo! Was a bit fiddly to do but cured the issue. I should say, the bike is only used on the turbo, otherwise this would not be a good solution…

poop – I’d have thought you’d be better off putting a little spacer in the non-drive side to get the right “axle” length (though I assume a bit of compression wouldn’t really harm most frames)

I did try a shim actually. However, when I torque up the QR there is always a bit of flex in the hanger. It happens when putting the oem rear wheel in too.

Fair enough – is the hanger integral to the dropout too ?

No mate, it’s removable.

I spent ages trying to sort it out but didn’t got anywhere till I “embraced” it by aligning the hanger on the turbo.lol

I blue tacked a metal rod to the flywheel and raised the turbo high off the floor then used the alignment tool.

is it an older trainer ? Sounds like it’s not an 11sp freehub – they used to be shoter, didn’t they ?

This is a brand new one made for 11 speed cassettes without shimming.

Shimmed the thru axle adapter on the drive side and it worked perfectly. Better chain line, less noise, same indexing as road bike.