Hi everyone!
One question that I've been getting a lot lately is whether we can
push the limits of an 11 speed derailleur,
and install it on a 12 speed drivetrain.
So how good is this design from Shimano?
Let's take a closer look.
For this test I'm going to use my 12 speed mixed drivetrain,
Eagle GX chain and cassette, XTR derailleur,
I also have an XTR 12 speed shifter.
And I'm gonna install this XT GS, so this is medium cage 11 speed,
And see what we get.
From a shifting standpoint, this is what we're starting with.
So absolutely nice and smooth,
I have a little bit of play here at the very end of my range
Clutch is disengaged just so I don't introduce that as a variable.
Pretty nice and smooth, I've been using this for about a year and no complaints whatsoever.
And the first step in doing this is going to be to remove the chain
Next, disconnect the shifter cable,
and remove the derailleur.
The construction of the two derailleurs is quite different.
This 11 speed GS is supposed to work with an 11-46t cassette as a maximum.
The 12 speed obviously is meant to work with the 10-51t Shimano cassette.
I detailed these two in separate videos I'll make sure to include the links.
But in a nutshell the big differences are:
One, is the offset here of the top jockey
you can see quite a difference between the two.
Then you'll have the length of your cage.
You can see how the 12 speed cage is longer.
And finally jockey wheels.
The bigger jockey wheels allow you to swallow a bigger cassette
without making the cage overly long.
The length of housing required is exactly the same,
however the limit screws and the B-gap are way out of whack.
So I have to adjust that first.
And here it is!
So 11 speed, GS, medium cage,
making it all the way up to a 50 tooth cassette.
This is an SRAM Eagle 10-50t, let's take a look at shifting,
B-gap here is about 5 mm which is what the 11 speed derailleur is usually recommend
So let's give it a try!
Harder gears.
Alright, so I would say that's quite impressive, what do you guys think?
However, when I shifted back down to the smallest cogs,
I don't know if you've noticed that hesitation
right here when I got to the three or four smallest cogs.
That is where a bigger offset derailleur like this one would make a difference because
that offset brings the top jockey in this position a bit closer to your cogs.
The other thing is, right here, I don't have that much tension in my derailleur
with the amount of chain that I have.
If I go back up to the 50t...
and shorten the chain by about two links
I bet you it will shift a little bit better.
Alright, so is there a conclusion to be had here after our little test?
First of all it's amazing that this works!
And I know many people have used GS derailleurs like this
on 11-50t cassettes, mostly 11 speed or 10 speed,
and I assume that would work a bit better only because you're not really pushing
the derailleur at the very end over here.
Using this on a hardtail - it's probably better than trying it on a full suspension bike
because of the chain growth.
If I am to cut my chain a couple of links here
I might be able to put a bit more tension on the chain when on the smallest cogs.
So again, another thing that's probably worth trying.
But overall, if you have the money
I think I would recommend just getting the proper 12 speed derailleur
and I have a video giving you all the details about
the 1x or 2x 12 speed derailleurs from Shimano.
And I don't know if you would save that much installing an 11 speed these days
because from a price perspective they're coming very close to each other.
And that is probably the end of my short video!
If you guys have any questions let me know below.
Let me know if you are interested in one of these 11 speed derailleurs
with a 12 speed cassette or
if you're using this with something like 11-50t
I would love to hear your experience
If you were to use this with a 12 speed cassette,
why would you do that?
I would be very curious to find out.
Once again, I hope you found this useful.
If you did don't forget to Like, subscribe,
keep an eye on social media,
and until next time,
hope to see you folks on the trails.
Cheers guys, cheers!