hi, currently have a 10-42 cassette, but i’d like a higher top gear for a certain multi day french enduro thingy in June. What are my options?

10-50 eagle and massive smashable rear mech has never really appealed. what decent light weight 11 speed options do i have?

Take 2t off your chain ring 😉

Sunrace do some 11-50’s and 11-46’s (but check for your chain ring sizes) as far as I know from my last check 11-46 is less range than 10-42.

SunRace MX8 11spd 11-42

… Is your answer; wherever you can find one in stock.

Do you actually mean “bottom” gear? Your current top gear would be the 10T cog so to get a higher gear you’d need a bigger chainring.

What’s your current rear mech and what’s its capacity?

@jamesmio – that would reduce the range!!!

sorry bottom gear  😆

I’ve heard the 50 cog in a standard mech doesnt work well. Sram x1 type 2.1 mech currently

How about this?

If that’s this one – https://www.sram.com/sram/mountain/products/x1-x-horizon-rear-derailleur then 42T is the largest cog you can use with it. A quick look around the Sram mechs seems to indicate that it’s only the Eagle mechs that go bigger, might have missed one so don’t take that as gospel, I’m not au fait with Sram kit.

Hmmm.  May just be best going for a smaller chainring then!

Hope do 10-44 & 10-48. I was going to but i read they wear quickly and don’t shift well.

if you get XX1 or possibly X01 cassette Wolftooth do expander cogs

merlin had the sunrace 11/46 for £40

merlin had the sunrace 11/46 for £40

11-46 is less range than 10-42.

OP –

i’d like a higher top gear

@jamesmio – that would reduce the range!!!

11-46 is less range than 10-42

OP didn’t ask for more range, I took ‘higher top gear’ as an easier gear.

Well in that case a smaller chain ring is the quick and cheap option 🙂 and lighter probably too

Yes I would like a lovely easy gear from grinding out the fire road climbs. Just went out and checked and I have 34tooth chainring on which I put on for a race last summer and haven’t taken off! Perhaps I could drop as low as a 30?

edit. That Garbaruk cassette is certainly interesting

Yes you could.

I have a 28t on my 29er enduro bike.

If your current cassette and chain are fine then you can fit one of these-

GCX 46T Cog for SRAM XX1/X01 cassette

I fitted the One-Up version to my XX1 cassette when the big aluminium cog wore out and the rest was fine.

Perhaps I could drop as low as a 30?

I have a 30t on my 29er and 32t on my 650b

My Specialized Enduro came with a 28tooth front chain ring and 10-42 cassette. I was also looking for more range, I did look into the Garbaruk,annoyingly they dont fit on Hope Hubs.

I’ve just picked up one of these:

https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/e-thirteen-trs-11-speed-race-cassette-2017/rp-prod184438

Was coming up for cassette replacement time (10-42 GX), so nothing to lose (Unless it’s rubbish).

Will let you know how I get on…

xg 1175 cassette so no dice with the 46.cog.

a few of the reviews of larger cassettes make little mention of the ‘standard’ 42 capacity of the mech i have so i guess it most be ok, say if i did get a sunrace 11- 46?

Love my E13 TRS 9-46. Not cheap but givs you 512% apparently. Works fine with 30t front.

+1 smaller chainring. Simple

@chris36 what mech do you use with it?

Just changed my XX1 10-42 for an E13 9-46, as well as the shifter internals to alter it to 12 speed.
Well impressed so far, extra range both ends & it shifts really nicely.
The slightly shorter lever throw on the shift takes a little while to get used to but apart from that I’m very happy with it.
Was the cheapest way to go with the bits I already had.

Cheers, where did you pick that up?

Surely just sticking on a smaller chainring is the cheapest and easiest option? My enduro fs has a 10-42 cassette with a 30t chainring and the ht has the same cassette with a 32t chainring. Both have steel cassettes that last ages and 1 of the 2 has a steel sram direct mount chainring which will also last ages. Easy to change too.

yeah it is, but i’m not sure its enough!

View this post on Instagram

Just gonna leave this here.

A post shared by TRANS-PROVENCE (@transprovence) on Mar 8, 2019 at 7:32am PST

Sounds like you have a Sram set up as I do and wanted to do the same, after a lot of research I went for the Garbaruk 10-50 with their expander derailleur, all on a Hope XD Pro 4 Hub / Freewheel. Been running it a few months now and it works brilliantly, would highly recommend.

Howsyourdad1, ordered from Starbike in Germany for €235, which was the cheapest I could find & it arrived in 3 days.

https://www.starbike.com/en/ethirteen-trs-plus-12-speed-black-upgrade-set-9-46t./

Sounds like you have a Sram set up as I do and wanted to do the same, after a lot of research I went for the Garbaruk 10-50 with their expander derailleur, all on a Hope XD Pro 4 Hub / Freewheel. Been running it a few months now and it works brilliantly, would highly recommend.

Where did you order the cassette from? I was looking and went to order from R2-Bike.com but they had this at the bottom of the page:

“Note: Garbaruk XD cassettes are not compatible with all rear hubs (eg Hope Pro 4 hubs)!”

Cheers all. I nearly went for an e13 cassette on eBay but there are 12 speed bargains to be had.

Gone eagle gx for 160 quid.

Larger cassette would need new chain etc .

Not keen on the weight and smashability but I figured it is a ‘clean’ solution without the need for any bodging.

it works on my existing 11 speed chainring and xtr cranks right? (Crosses fingers)

Where did you order the cassette from? I was looking and went to order from R2-Bike.com but they had this at the bottom of the page:

“Note: Garbaruk XD cassettes are not compatible with all rear hubs (eg Hope Pro 4 hubs)!”

After a lot of research I deduced that Hope do 2 versions for the Pro 4 Freewheel, one for their own cassette (which the Garbaruk cassette doesn’t fit) and one for Sram cassette, and I luckily had the Sram freewheel. Garbaruk also quote a max diameter on a part of the freewheel, 21mm I believe, I measured mine before ordering and it was 0.1mm less than their max so went for it and it fitted perfectly. I have seen on the net that owners with the Hope Cassette freewheel file this piece down, bit of a bodge but works. Oh, and I ordered direct from Garbaruk website direct.

Garbaruk also quote a max diameter on a part of the freewheel, 21mm I believe, I measured mine before ordering and it was 0.1mm less than their max so went for it and it fitted perfectly

Time to get the tape measure out! How did you find swapping out the cage on your SRAM mech for the Garbaruk one, was it an easy process and then indexing the gears was easy?

Yes, fairly simple, just make sure your Sram derailleur is a type 2 or 2.1 and not a type 3 which I had, as that doesn’t work with their extender kit. I managed to source a good secondhand type 2.1 one and was simple from there. Indexing was fine, just like normal setting up, just tried to get the top derailleur wheel as close to the 50 as possible and it still shifted, once it started snagging I just backed it off a bit, oh and make sure you don’t shorten the chain too much, check it with the shock out and in 50 tooth gear. Been running a few months with no issue and easy shifting.