Information of MTB/ROAD Shimano 10 Speed

Afternoon all,

I have an old Rose cyclo Cross frame that I robber of parts to put on my Tripster frame.

I also have a 26″ wheel Cube hardtail which is getting a bit tatty.

I have a plan to rob some bits from the Cube and build up the Rose as a 29 inch flat bar gravel/easy going single track bike. (I’ve got a full susser for the more heavy going rides).

Obviously I’ll need to put a road bike crank on the Rose, looking at a shimano compact 10 speed crank.

First question, are 10 speed MTB and Road chains the same dimensions?

Second question, I’m going to purchase some Shimano Deore M615 Disc Brakes for flat bars (The rose originally had drop bars). I intend to use the 10 speed shimano thumb shifters from the Cube as well as the rear mech (Rose still has the original front mech). LH is 3 chain ring, I assume if I adjust the screws on the front mech I can use a 3 chain ring shifter on a two chain ring crank?

Also, is there a difference in spacing on a Road 10 speed cassette and a MTB 10 speed cassette. Will the MTB thumb shifters work on an Ulterga 10 speed cassette?

Anybody else carried out something similar, any little things you found out during the migration that I need to be aware of?

Thanks GL.

First question, are 10 speed MTB and Road chains the same dimensions?

yes

LH is 3 chain ring, I assume if I adjust the screws on the front mech I can use a 3 chain ring shifter on a two chain ring crank?

yes, might not be totally optimal, but it will work fine

is there a difference in spacing on a Road 10 speed cassette and a MTB 10 speed cassette

no…so

Will the MTB thumb shifters work on an Ulterga 10 speed cassette?

yes

The important bit with Shimano 10speed is matching the shifter and rear mech. Chains and cassettes are cross compatible but road and MTB 10 speed cable pull ratios are different so basically it comes down to the shifters in most cases.

10sp MTB shifter -> need a 10sp MTB mech
10sp Road shifter* -> generic old-skool Shimano cable pull so will work with 7/8/9/10* speed road rear mechs, or 7/8/9 MTB rear mechs, but NOT 10peed MTB (and not 11sp version of either).

The next consideration is making sure your rear mech will work with your cassette, not the spacing, but the size of the bigger sprockets. MTB mechs can handle bigger big sprockets, but if you’re going to reuse an Ultegra cassette you should be fine.

* there is always an exception to the rule…4700 series 10speed Tiagra mechs/shifters use the Road 11sp cable pull ratio (but standard 10speed chains and cassettes!), but it sounds like you can safely ignore this as you didn’t mention any 10sp Tiagra parts.

Cool, thanks for the information.

Yep, I should be okay, I’m going to re-use the shifters and rear mech from the MTB Cube.

Post removed. You’ve already said what I did. 🙂