Hi,

I’m heading back to Shimano and looking at building up two bikes.

Both will be (probably) 11-36 cassettes, one definitely single front and one probably double, possibly triple.

I was liking the idea of a Zee RD for the single but I’m a bit confused now. I thought the numbers were stipulating capacity (tooth difference) and thus 36-11=25 so 24-28 RD = win. I’ve since spotted the numbers on CRC that make me think that the two sizes are intended for road cassette and regular mtb cassette. Is this right?

Final Zee question: how do they cope with double/triple or are the strictly single only? Just wondering whether to get two different mechs or standardise… 🙂

No idea with triple/double but I’ve got the 11-36 Zee RD with 11-36 cassette (natch) find there’s too much chain in small & too little chain in big, I imagine x2 would be a struggle

Also rose bikes – far cheaper but took 3days to arrive

Hm. I thought this was exactly the sort of thing the clutch was meant to be addressing?

The short cage Zee shadow + will only work with a single ring set up as it is intended for downhill use but it works extremely well for single ring set-ups due to the short cage length, the 32-36 tooth ratio is for a normal cassette with 11-36 or 11-34 tooth for cross country use and those that ride their bike uphills and the 23-28 ratio mech is intended for use with a roadie cassette for the downhilly crowd as they don’t need such a wide spread of gear ratios.

Clutch is ace, It’s just that I’d like a little less sag but with clutch on – silence, no slap even on really stupid rocky stuff. Without clutch it was a nightmare.

I’ve the same setup as banks and find it ok, maybe a little tight on the 36. Clutch is a revelation, just brilliant. Can’t answer triple/double question but suspect it would probably work, but require you to avoid lots more gear combinations than the obvious big/big due to too long/short chain. I think this as I’m running 3×9 on the commuter mtb with a 105 super short cage rear mech and to get it all to work ok I can’t use a few gears due to too much or too little chain.

I ran the zee mech 32-36 with 11-36 rear cassette and a variety of front rings. The zee is not designed to work with double or triple, it can work, as I have used it but as Joel says it won’t work well in every gear combo.
Richard

Zee = short cage = single ring = great!

Thanks guys!