Hey guys, how's it going?
Whether you're building new or upgrading your existing bike, it's hard not to look at the Shimano components these days.
And in this video I'm going to show you step-by-step how to install a Shimano 12-speed drivetrain.
And what I'm going to use is an SLX shifter, a Deore rear derailleur, this is an XT chain
and this is again a Deore 12 speed cassette.
Shimano's Hyperglide+ requires their 12-speed cassette and chain,
and in order to install the cassette I assume everybody knows that you need a Micro Spline freehub body.
The crank set that I'm going to use is this SLX M7100 that I reviewed recently
so I'm not going to spend that much time on it in this video.
And even though I have mostly SLX and Deore components,
this procedure applies to all Shimano 12-speed drivetrains since all the parts are interchangeable.
I've chosen the I-SPEC EV shifter because the brakes that I'm going to install are the Deore 4 piston
and they do come with the new bar clamp, the I-SPEC EV.
And that's again the reason why for the dropper I'm gonna use this Shimano remote that I've reviewed not too long ago as well.
And in case your shifter didn't come with housing I would highly suggest to consider the Shimano MTB cable sets,
they do come with this SP-41 housing and a couple of inner cables for it.
And talking about the shifter cable, if you are upgrading your bike I would probably recommend to change the housing.
If you have a new bike or a new frame I would recommend trying to route the hoses and cables
through the frame even before you install the fork.
That is because you would have visibility and also access to the frame through the various openings.
But if you want more details on How-to Build a Bike from Scratch and how to select components
I have a full series on my channel, make sure you check it out!
And one last tip before we start, especially if you have internally routed cables like I have here,
try to use foam sleeves for your housing because otherwise these tubes are going to be rattle boxes,
I'm going to put a link in the description to buy something like this.
First we're going to install the cassette and this new freehub has 23 splines, with one of them being wider.
And that's going to be the key for our cassette.
Obviously that key can be found here on the cassette spider as well but don't remove this plastic tube just yet.
This piece of plastic is a stop for the tube but it also shows you where that key is on the cassette.
So line up your wider spline with it
and then, as you remove it,
you will be able to just slide the cassette onto the freehub body.
The only thing left will be the loose cogs we'll install that next.
I also moved the cassette onto my Hope 4 freehub because that's the one I'm going to use
and you can see the 18, 16, 14, 10 and 12 loose cogs.
You also have these two washers, you got to pay attention because one is almost 2 mm thick, the other one is 1 mm thick.
So we're going to install the 18 tooth
followed by the 2 mm spacer,
then we're going to have the 16 tooth followed by the 1 mm spacer.
14T goes right on top of that little spacer
and that takes us to the last two.
The 12 tooth cog is actually the last one that connects to the freehub body
and this is a bit tricky to put in place, take your time.
The tiniest cog, the 10 tooth, this actually has to line up with the 12 tooth and it sits on top of it.
It's fairly easy to do because Shimano gives us these little dots:
you see a dot here on the 10T and there is another dot here on the 12 tooth.
Line them up and that's the perfect position.
Finally put a bit of grease here on the threads of your lock ring,
grab a cassette tool and you're going to tighten this to 40 Newton Meters like Shimano specifies here.
Next is the Deore rear derailleur but I have to mention that derailleur hanger
because this has such a huge impact in the smooth shifting afterwards.
It has to be nice and straight and you can use any derailleur alignment tool, this Park Tool DAG-2.2 does the job quite well.
On the fixing screw you can use Loctite, grease or anti-seize.
I usually use a little bit of Loctite blue on the threads.
And the only trick here is that the screw and this little tab has to stay above the stop on that derailleur hanger.
Use a 5 mm hex to tighten this to 8-10 Nm.
When correctly installed this B-gap screw touches the tab which touches the stop.
With the wheel installed we want to do some rough adjustments of the rear derailleur.
First is going to be the limiter screws and we're looking at the HIGH limiter screw here on the right, the left one is the LOW limiter screw.
Using a 2 mm hex we're going to move that upper jockey until it is in line with the exterior of that 10-tooth cog.
Move the Allen key to the other limiter screw and now we're going to try to see how far down the cassette this derailleur can go.
You're going to need two hands for this so this is a bit of a trial and error.
Right now my top jockey only gets to the second largest cog so I have too much, undo a turn, a full turn,
you're trying to make sure that your chain is not going to get into the spokes when you start to really adjust the derailleur.
Here we go, I'm done.
And since we're here, make sure that your housing has a nice turn when entering the derailleur,
in my case I had to push it into the frame a little bit more.
By the way I love how the derailleur routing goes when it's on the seatstays
because even for Shimano you have a nice tidy loop here.
Next we're going to install the chain and there is a few gotchas with this new Shimano 12 speed chain.
We do have a quick link and you can see from the arrow that this is directional, more about that later.
Shimano doesn't recommend using these more than once,
you can get replacement ones and as clearly stated here, they're not reusable.
But if you're doing an upgrade and your chainring is not Shimano 12 speed compatible,
many people have used the SRAM PowerLink or Quick Link with success using the same Shimano chain.
The chain itself has an inner side and an outer side, make sure you see the Shimano writing on it from the drive side of the bike.
And finally, in order to cut the chain to length you're gonna need a chain tool.
From the factory chain is gonna be longer than needed.
And to measure it you're gonna wrap it around the largest chainring if you have more than one, and the largest cog.
Bring the ends together on the largest cog and you're gonna measure end-to-end plus one, two, three, four or five links for hardtail.
Obviously you have to finish with an inner link on both ends because of the Quick Link.
Full suspension bike needs an extra link so it would be 5 or 6 here.
Use the chain cutter or the chain tool to push out the connecting pin of the chain.
Routing the chain through the derailleur is pretty simple, lower jockey and make sure you go above that little tab,
upper jockey and ultimately the first cog on the cassette.
We lined up that upper jockey with it remember?
To finally connect the chain just bring the two ends together, usually at the bottom,
you're gonna install the two parts of the quick link, one inside one outside,
and make sure that the arrow is in the direction of the chain moving when pedaling.
Make sure that the two plates are parallel with each other meaning that the bolts are engaged,
and if you just hit on your crank like that you're gonna see the quick link finally engaged and the chain connected.
And now the last thing for us to install is the shifter.
But at this point you can already take a look at how our rough alignments for the limiter screws are working,
you don't want the chain rubbing on the second cog.
And if you push on the derailleur with your hand
you will be able to shift all the way to the largest cog
even without the shifter connected.
Back to our derailleur, first thing I always do I look at this barrel adjuster,
I tighten it all the way in so that is clockwise all the way in,
back out of there a turn and a half,
that was about 10 clicks in my case.
That gives you a bit of flexibility in adjusting the indexing.
For a bar clamp shifter you're just going to slide it in and find your position
But I would argue that if you have ISPEC-EV brakes like I do here
it's probably preferred to have an I-SPEC EV shifter as well.
And that's why I picked my SLX with the I-SPEC EV mount.
The two pieces are required to install is this little screw that's already trapped into the bracket,
and the aluminum piece that you see in my right hand here.
Use a 4 mm Allen to loosen up the bar clamp screw all the way,
a 2 mm in that Push to Open pinhole
to open the bar clamp altogether.
Drop the aluminum piece here in its opening
and now you can clamp the brake back onto the handlebar.
Then the shifter is installed literally from the bottom up using a 3 mm Allen key.
Obviously you will slide it into position that you like before you fully tighten the screw
And don't forget to adjust the up and down position of the shifter relative to the brake lever
before you tighten up both the 3 mm and the 4 mm screws.
And because you watched my How-to build a bike from Scratch series
you know how to measure the length of your housing,
then cut,
round up the end of it, and install a ferrule.
The SP-41 housing already has grease in it
but if you want to add some more on the actual inner cable you can do that.
I usually put a tiny bit of it on the inner cable before I push it through the housing.
And that's going to be our next step.
And we're ready to connect the cable to the derailleur but push on this up shifter a few times
to make sure you are indeed in the hardest gear first.
Shifter cable would connect to the derailleur using that pinch bolt
and the cable has to pretty much be wrapped around it.
So use a 4 mm Allen key to loosen that bolt first,
route the cable around the bolt like I mentioned,
and while pulling on the cable slightly to take out the slack just tighten the pinch bolt.
And final step is to cut your inner cable and finish it with an end cap.
And congratulations!!! You just got your Shimano 12 speed drivetrain installed!!!
But now you're gonna need the trusty 2 mm to fine tune it.
Make sure the clutch on your derailleur is in the disengage or off position,
and the first thing I usually try to do is adjust the B-gap
which is the distance between that upper jockey and the cassette.
But in order to do so we have to shift to the largest cog first,
Don't worry about how good the shifting is at this point.
By turning the screw clockwise you push the derailleur further away from the cassette,
obviously you'll go counter clockwise to bring the cassette closer,
and Shimano makes it easy by giving us that 51- tooth line on the derailleur cage.
So adjust your B-gap screw so it lines up with the tip of that largest cog
and you have the B-gap dialed.
And now we're ready to adjust the gear indexing for which we're going to use the barrel adjuster on the shifter itself.
And first bring your chain to the 5th or 6th cog from the smallest,
that's pretty much in the middle of the cassette,
and while pedaling turn the barrel adjuster counterclockwise (CCW)
until you hear chain rub and you should hear this kind of noise
chain rubbing on the bigger cog right next to it.
At that point go back to your barrel adjuster and turn it clockwise now (CW), 5 clicks - one, two
And at this point you're ready to give it a try the noise disappeared.
As you could see everything works almost perfect for me
however when I'm trying to shift to my 51T it doesn't really stay there.
It is because my LOW (gear) limit screw is too tight,
so I'm just gonna loosen that by a quarter turn and I should be good to go.
Obviously the 5 clicks on the barrel adjuster is a rough estimate, if you're still rubbing give it a little bit more,
if it doesn't shift properly to the larger cogs go counterclockwise here.
And one note to say that if you're used to the older Shimano 11 speed or SRAM drivetrains
they might shift down the cassette a bit faster than this.
This is the Hyperglide+ in action
so you're gonna see a small delay in shifting to the smaller cogs, watch this:
So it doesn't happen instantly and don't worry, that it is normal.
And if you've been with me for this long I hope you found this useful,
make sure you hit that LIKE button as it helps my channel quite a bit!
One last thing that I want to mention here is
make sure you engage your clutch, I see a lot of bikes with the clutch disengaged on the trails.
That's because people don't remember to do it.
Once you do it the chain slap is going to be minimized, look at how loose this cage is.
Once you engage it it's going to be locked into position it's a lot harder to move.
And this clutch needs maintenance
but I do have a comprehensive video on how to take care of that, I will link it in the description.
What do you guys think?
Happy to be done with your first ever Shimano 12 speed installation?
I hope it works perfectly on your bike like it does on mine,
but if you have any questions don't forget to ask in the comments below.
As usual, if you found this useful don't forget to like, subscribe,
keep an eye on social media, and until next time
hope to see you folks on the trails riding some Shimano gear.
Cheers guys, cheers!