SRAM 10spd and 11spd Drivetrain compatibility

[TheK12]

Thinking about building up a hardtail 29er from a bunch of spare parts I have laying around. Looking for some help on understanding SRAM drivetrain compatibility. I have a 10spd cassette, an 11spd GX cassette, 10spd X7 trigger, and 10spd GXP derailleur. Wheels have an XD freehub. Can I get a working drivetrain out of these parts?

-11spd GX Cassette with the 10spd trigger and 10spd GXP derailleur?
-Buy an 11spd GX shifter and mix that with 10spd GXP derailleur and 11spd cassette?
-10spd cassette with spacer on XD freehub and 10spd shfiter and 10spd GXP derailleur?

[Phall]

-11spd GX Cassette with the 10spd trigger and 10spd GXP derailleur?
Not enough shifts on the trigger to get the 11 speeds, theoretically you could set the easiest or hardest gear as unreachable, however the amount of cable pull per shift is different between the 10 and 11 speed drivetrains (spacing on the cassette between gears) so it will never really work well.

-Buy an 11spd GX shifter and mix that with 10spd GXP derailleur and 11spd cassette?
You will need an 11 speed derailleur in this situation too, 10 speed gx derailleur uses a different amount of cable per shift, you'll have terrible shifting.

-10spd cassette with spacer on XD freehub and 10spd shfiter and 10spd GXP derailleur?
Not possible, XD driver only works with XD Cassettes, which are 11 speed and 12 speed only.
Your best bet is to buy a new driver body (SRAM/SHIMANO HG) for the 10 speed cassette and run the 10 speed drivetrain.

[Dee Hubbs]

10 speed and 11 speed have different pull ratios with derailleurs and respective shifters. Thus they don't mix very well. BUT cog spacing on 11 speed and 10 speed cassette are the same distance apart.
XD free hub only service 11/12 speed cassettes, so no luck putting a 10 speed cassette on an XD hub.
Your best bet is to run 11 speed cassette, 10 speed shifter/derailure and use the limit screws to block out your 10 tooth or your (42?) low gear.

[toast2266]

I don't think you can get anything to work out of those parts unless the 10 speed cassette fits on an XD driver (which I'm assuming it doesn't - I don't recall Sram making a 10 speed, XD cassette). If it's not an XD cassette, it's not going to work unless you swap freehubs.

10 speed stuff won't work on 11 speed cassette - different cog spacing. I believe 10 and 11 speed have different pull ratios, so 11 speed shifter won't work with the 10 speed derailleur.

So you should use the 11 speed cassette and buy an 11 speed shifter and derailleur.

Edit: or swap your driver body to HG and run the 10 speed stuff. But then you're spending most of $100 to have a 10 speed drivetrain. Seems like you're better off spending a bit more to have an 11 speed drivetrain, but I suppose that depends on what the intended use for the bike is.

[Dantheman]

Yeah, none of those configurations will work. Cheapest option would be to buy a new Shimano-style driver (the fact that you have XD right now makes me think your hub in convertible, but you'll need to confirm this) and use the 10 sp stuff. Or, buy a 11sp shifter and RD and use the 11 sp GX cassette (that I assume is 10-42). The latter is probably what I would do. You can get a SLX RD and shifter for $80 on Jenson right now which isn't much more than what a new driver will cost you.

https://www.jensonusa.com/Shimano-SL...ear-Derailleur
https://www.jensonusa.com/Shimano-SL...-Speed-Shifter

[toast2266]

BUT cog spacing on 11 speed and 10 speed cassette are the same distance apart.

Pretty sure that's not true. They're close, but just different enough that they won't work well.

[TheK12]

Yeah, none of those configurations will work. Cheapest option would be to buy a new Shimano-style driver (the fact that you have XD right now makes me think your hub in convertible, but you'll need to confirm this) and use the 10 sp stuff. Or, buy a 11sp shifter and RD and use the 11 sp GX cassette (that I assume is 10-42). The latter is probably what I would do. You can get a SLX RD and shifter for $80 on Jenson right now which isn't much more than what a new driver will cost you.

https://www.jensonusa.com/Shimano-SL...ear-Derailleur
https://www.jensonusa.com/Shimano-SL...-Speed-Shifter

hmmm.... this is interesting and maybe best option. will the SLX stuff work with the GX 11spd Casette?

[TheK12]

One more question. Looks like I can find some cheap used NX shifter and derailleur . Could I run NX 11psd shifter and derailleur with the 11spd GX cassette?

[Dantheman]

hmmm.... this is interesting and maybe best option. will the SLX stuff work with the GX 11spd Casette?

AFAIK, yes. I'm pretty sure cog spacing is the same between Shimano/SRAM 11 sp cassettes. I think it was fairy common to run a SRAM cassette to get the range and lighter weight, and Shimano shifty bits because they're cheaper and some people prefer the feel of Shimano shifters.

Your first post didn't mention having a chain. You'll need a SRAM 11 sp chain, too.

[Dantheman]

One more question. Looks like I can find some cheap used NX shifter and derailleur . Could I run NX 11psd shifter and derailleur with the 11spd GX cassette?

Yes. I'm running NX shifter/RD with a XX1 cassette on my kid's bike with no issues.

[TheK12]

awesome all! thanks for the very helpful info! think i'm going to go with the NX option first as I can get shifter, derailleur and 11spd chain for less than $100. perfect for the budget.

[Phall]

Yes shimano 11 speed plays very well with SRAM 11 cassettes and vice versa. NX is another great option which will play well with the 11 cassette.

[jamal]

Yeah mixing sram and shimano cassettes is fine. I have shimano cassettes with sram shifters on both my mtb and cx bikes.

There used to be a useful chart on the art's cyclery website, but that doesn't exist anymore. It showed all the pull ratios and cassette spacing for various things. I could probably dig it up on the waybackmachine and rehost it.

side note, sram 10 and 11s are compatible on the road side, and sram 10s mtb and road are compatible, so there are some interesting combos you can do that were more useful before they came out with inexpensive clutched road 11s rear derailleurs. for example, clutched 1x setup with road shifters using a 10s mtb derailleur. I had some 10s sram rival shifters, and was going to just buy a clutched x9 derailleur for my cross bike because the only option was the expensive force cx1 stuff. But then rival and apex 1 came out by the time I got around to actually doing it.

[toast2266]

There used to be a useful chart on the art's cyclery website, but that doesn't exist anymore. It showed all the pull ratios and cassette spacing for various things. I could probably dig it up on the waybackmachine and rehost it.

You should do that! I went looking for that earlier - super annoying that it was gone.

[jamal]

found it. looks like site went down about a year ago

https://web.archive.org/web/20181013...compatibility/