36 on the rear, is it possible?

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BikeCrusher
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Joined: Mon Jul 27, 2015 8:23 pm

by BikeCrusher

I am a very big guy and I am struggling with the hills on my road bike. I will never be a racing snake so I want to create a groupset that gives me a speed gear (52/11)and a mega granny gear (36/36) so I can cycle up the hills rather than walk.

My goal is to run SRAM Force 22 - 36/52 on the front and then the SRAM 11-36 cassette on the rear. I have asked a number of my LBS’s and I keep getting different answers but none of them fill me with confidence… So I am reaching out to you guys. Is my dream just that, or can I achieve my groupset goal 52/36 Front – 11 speed 11-36 rear?

by Weenie


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Valbrona
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by Valbrona

Oh anything but a triple ...

Marin
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by Marin

My Ultegra 6800 mid cage can shift a 36 cog, but it might not work on any frame.

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prendrefeu
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by prendrefeu

It is possible, the only thing that you need to change in terms of equipment is the rear derailleur as its qualities (cage length) are the biggest factor in the size of cogs you can have on your cassette.

Whether you go with a Red or Force level, make sure your cage is either a Medium length or Long length. The Medium will obviously be lighter, and since this is weight weenies that does matter to us.

After you're all set, just ride, ride, ride, and ride more hills. Eventually you'll get to a point in your abilities, strength and health (?) where you'll change the gearing again to something more normalized.

Good luck, and have fun out there!
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eric
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by eric

The long cage does not have enough wrap for your double chainring setup. That has 41t of wrap, the long cage has 32t. You need a longer cage derailleur.

wojchiech
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Location: bay area, california

by wojchiech

I've been running a 36t in the rear on my commuter setup with a double crankset. I use 10 speed Force shifters and a long cage Apex derailleur. I tried using a mid cage Force but it couldn't clear the 36t cassette.

I've also ran a 36t in back with 10 speed Shimano Ultegra shifters and mid cage 105 derailleur with an extra long b-screw. Not as nice shifting (a little more hesitation) into the 36 but Shimano rear derailleurs seem to actuate on an axis that is more capable of clearing cassettes with 28 or more teeth. I was also running a compact crank so the pulley cage was never at extreme angles and always tried not to cross chain. I think if I ran a standard double I'd be afraid of the derailleur being ripped apart.

Svetty
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Location: Yorkshire - God's Own Country

by Svetty

It seems a little perverse to adopt extreme measures to get a 36 to work on the cassette when you could run a 34 inner chainring and get almost the same gear with a standard road set-up using a 32 sprocket cassette. The benefits of a 52 over a 50 are minimal.......

nickcube
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by nickcube

The force1 rear mech is only suitable for 1x. Just use a Sram mtb 10sp rear mech, it will work with sram road 11sp shifters. The rest looks fine on paper and you should be able to get it all working pretty good, I'd recommend a medium, possibly long cage mech, personally I'd choose the sram x9 type 2.1 Good luck with it all

Jepas
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Joined: Wed Feb 22, 2012 6:56 pm

by Jepas

You will need a RD with at least 41T capacity, I believe the MTB RDs will be your best and safest bet on this (extreme) setup.

grover
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by grover

As said the Force1 rear derailleur is only for use with a single ring. It will not work on a double chainring due to the horizontal parallelogram and offset jockey wheel design. I can give you a more detailed explanation but it's been covered previously.

You have two issues
1- the parallelogram/b-tension designed to accommodate a 36tooth cassette cog
2- cage length to take up your 41 tooth gear capacity (52-36)+(36-11)=41

Going by the book (yes things work differently in some instances, but by the book)
- sram road standard rear derailleur - max 28 tooth cog
- sram road wifli rear derailleur - max 32 tooth cog
- sram 10 speed 2x10 mtb rear derailleur - max 36 tooth cog

My girlfriends cyclocross bike uses 36/46 chainrings, 11-36 cassette. For this she uses a medium cage SRAM XX rear derailleur with SRAM Red shifters. It's faultless.
As you want to use wider range chainrings your gear capacity tips you over to the need for a long cage rear derailleur (medium cage is designed for 37tooth capacity from memory)

So I think your best bet would be a long cage SRAM 10 speed mtb rear derailleur. My only concern would be that the ten speed derailleur cage is slightly wider than the eleven speed cage. There is a chance that your eleven speed chain could derail from the jockey wheels and jam between the jockey wheel and the cage when in an extreme gear (52/36). This could be remedied by fitting eleven speed jockey wheels and bolts (shorter) to the 10 speed derailleur to make the cage eleven speed width.

Yes SRAM 10 speed mtb rear derailleurs use the same cable pull ratio as SRAM 10/11 speed road shifters.

The last issue is the lack of a barrel adjuster on the mtb derailleur. Just use a good inline one. You may also have an issue with the direct cable entry rather than the typical loop out the back depending on your frame's cable routing design.

https://www.sram.com/sram/mountain/prod ... derailleur


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eliflap-scalpel
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by eliflap-scalpel

i have a Force 1 medium cage and a 11-36T 11 speeds Force1 cassette , new.

not installed , i went to a long cage and 10-42 for a 1x11 set up

do you want them ?
http://eliflap.it/

Rondje
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by Rondje

Just a question, if you are not the Racing snake, where would you need the 52/11 for, isn't a 50/11 more than enough? You can reach 50km/h+ with that. If you choose a 50 you can run 50/34 which also means you can go a bit smaller on the back.

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MikeMoore
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by MikeMoore

I can back up that SRAM 10 speed MTB mechs will work, but as above I'd just run a 50/34 front on an 11/32 rear. You'd still have a higher gearing than a 53/12.
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