Hey everyone in this video I'm going to take a closer look at installing an
extended-range cassette on my Smuggler. This bike is running an 11 speed Shimano
drivetrain right now and I'm looking after that 500% ish gear
range that's something like Eagle can provide. This is also part 2 of the
quick check on the 9-46 tooth e*thirteen cassette since I'm going to talk about
installation of it. If you need more data just use the link on the screen to check that video.
Even though I have to replace the freehub body on my bike to install
this 9-46t cassette I consider this to be a better solution to extend the gear range on my 11 speed.
And here's why:
Number one is weight. The modified cassettes usually add
bigger cogs here behind 42t or 40t and those add weight, unsprung weight to the
rear axle and that was not something I was interested in. As you are adding
bigger cogs here if you get bigger than 46 teeth then you have to think about
changing the cage on your rear mech. The existing 11 speed that Shimano and SRAM
Shimano SGS and GS and SRAM will go well up until 46 teeth after that you
have to modify the cage and again that was not something that I was interested in.
As you extend the range of your cassette many people start to think
about changing the chain ring size as well and in my case I have to keep in
mind the fact that on this frame the maximum I can install is 34, what you see
in my case is a 32 oval that goes from 30 to 34 so I cannot usually go bigger
than this but I can definitely go smaller. Talking about bigger and smaller
it's kind of hard to talk about any of that without looking at a gear range calculator.
For instance looking at GX Eagle with the 32 tooth up front you're gonna have a
max ratio of 3.56, minimum 0.71. Looking down here you can get an idea of the
kind of speeds you're gonna get at a specific cadence. These are all
calculated for my 29er and by the way. If I'm looking at the E.13
with the same 32 tooth chainring you can see here that I get higher low gear
meaning I can go faster downhill I assume and it's a bit harder to pedal
uphill. But if I change that chain ring to a 30 all of a sudden I'm still higher
than Eagle on the high end but I'm coming very close if not almost the same
with Eagle when it comes to climbing gear. So that's how you play with these
gear calculators just to decide what would be good for you.
Now that you've chosen your chain ring as well let's get to installing the cassette.
You're gonna need obviously the locking ring
and the tool that they provide. The instructions are pretty well laid out in
eight steps, you can use that as well. I'm gonna use a new chain since this is a
new cassette, 11 speed SRAM PC-X1. You might need a bit more grease this is
what's provided with the cassette which I like. This is a Shimano bottom bracket tool,
either that one or this will do the trick. And you need a chain whip, not
to uninstall but to install this particular cassette.
These cassettes install quite differently from SRAM cassette on the HD driver, and that is
mostly because of this 9 tooth cog. They had to come up with a different mechanism to
attach the cluster of cogs to the XD driver because the steel ones that you
see over here up to 28t, they don't connect directly to the XD driver, they
actually connects to the aluminum carrier of the three big cogs.
These two interconnect and that's the reason why they give you this unlocked and locked
position. There are three tabs here, the older cassettes have more, and you can
see them one two down here, three over there. As you rotate one versus the other
this tab onto the steel cogs is going to interconnect with that tongue on the
aluminum carrier. And that's how they stay together. As you are putting torque
here on the steel cogs you're not relying on that little
mechanism to transfer the force to the wheel. But you have these aluminum blocks
over here, you have one next to each of those tongues, one two and three and that's
where your connection blocks are going to stop. You have a bushing over here as well.
Here we go. This has to be greased just to make sure that there's no creaking.
The main contact point between the
cassette and the XD driver is here at the base so make sure you grease up that
spline as well as the thread here on the DT driver. With that completed just grab
the aluminum carrier and push it in. The locking ring secures this in place,
you're going to need 25 Nm or snug plus 45 degrees which is 1/8 of a
turn not a quarter turn like I mention it in my previous video.
They also suggest to use grease here on the threads so apply liberally as well.
Since these are all interconnected metal parts I would also suggest to put a bit
of grease here at the base where the locking ring is gonna touch the aluminum carrier.
I suggest always starting that locking ring by hand,
then using the cassette tool tightened it to Snug then give it that
extra nudge, 1/8 of the turn as suggested. I have the torque wrench set up to 25Nm
...yep it is actually more than 25Nm. With the aluminum part
installed I'm going to regress these contact points here and also under the
bushing on the steel part of the cassette.
You need a grease on that bushing because that's what connects directly to the top of the XD driver and
also connects to the inside of your cassette over here. I'm just gonna look
for that indicator, the locked up position and in order for this to ever
interconnect I'm gonna have to push it flush so I'm applying quite a bit of
pressure here. If you're not sure just grab a socket, and a rubber mallet and just
tap it a couple of times. Grab a chain whip, I'm gonna keep a
bit of pressure here on the cogs and just
push it in place. Once it starts to go
there's a positive, it's not a click but you feel it one is locked into position.
And here it is.
And here is on the stand guys. this time I decided to do it differently,
I put about 20 kilometers on the drivetrain already trying to get that breaking
period out of the way. On the chain which I kept the KMC just to be able to
compare apples to apples I added a couple of links. I ended up with big-to-big
plus 4 links for my full suspension bike. How do you know that you
have enough chain for your bike? Well, if you look here on the biggest cog you got
to make sure that you have enough movement here on your cage just to make
up for your chain growth as the suspension moves up and down.
Here at the other end same thing: you're trying to make sure you still have a bit of
tension here on your spring and also, obviously, that we have enough clearance
for the top jockey. This 9t cog can create issues with clearance here and
you can see it very close to my frame, maybe about 2 millimeters up top here.
It is actually coming closer to the derailleur hanger than it's to the frame.
The interesting thing was that when replacing the Shimano 11-42t with the 9-46t
the limiter screws both here and on the big cog they were spot-on you don't
have to touch anything. The barrel adjuster that takes care of the shifting
between the gears, I didn't have to touch that one either. The only thing that I
had to adjust though was the B-screw which is right here. For the M8000 and
M9000 you need a 2 millimeter Allen key. I had to give it a couple more turns
to push the derailleur further away from the cassette. That is to clear the 46t
the 46t, biggest cog over here.
What I ended up with is about 8 millimeter gap, or B-gap gap for this Shimano drivetrain.
The reason why I didn't want to replace this chain was because this with the 11-42t
cassette from Shimano was causing big trouble when backpedaling on the 42t.
On this 9-46t, no problem.
As you probably know from one of my previous videos if you
just replace the chain with the SRAM one, that usually helps with the chain not
jumping that aggressively from the big cog. Talk about shifting I would say is
on par with the performance of the 11-42t Shimano
or the SRAM Eagle. Here we go,
one by one, up shifts. Down shifts.
The down shifts
are a bit smoother, very smooth actually and here is dumping 2 because I can.
And jumping up three or four, there you go.
But enough of this testing on stand, let me take it to the trails.
I was lucky to get half decent weather out in the woods
to test this. And here you can see shifts to 46t under power. Then the shifts
down all the way to the 9t cog mostly to show it to you guys.
And here's the shift between the steel and the aluminum cogs.
So after a couple of rides out in the woods, about 2.5h put on this drivetrain what do I think?
Well... first of all I think we're spoiled to have all these good
options these days. This 11 speed drivetrain, really wide range of gears
performs flawlessly. I'm very very impressed, it works as well as the
Shimano cassette that it replaced. I've used this with an XT GS or medium cage
rear derailleur, the KMC chain that is pretty bad actually with the Shimano
cassette, on this one is it's okay. I have a OneUp oval 32 tooth and an XTR shifter.
In order to take full advantage of this gear range I would have to
replace my chainring with a 30t because right now I don't think I will
ever use the 9t cog or the 11th gear on the back but aside from that
really really smooth upshifts, so going towards the bigger cogs, absolutely
flawless. There is no jump here between the steel
and aluminum you don't feel that transition whatsoever.
Coming down the cassette from the big cogs, so upshifts are a bit noisier, it
might be because of the slightly bigger jumps between gears. But aside from that
absolutely flawless performance.
And that's all I have for you guys today.
If you have any questions let me know in the section below, if you want to
purchase any one of these use the links in the description.
Don't forget to like the video, subscribe to my channel,
and until next time I hope you're having
epic rides like this guys. Cheers!