How many gears from an 11 speed groupset are usable?

gcwebbyuk
gcwebbyuk Posts: 1,926
edited January 2015 in Workshop
I have recently bought a Canyon Endurace which came with 11 speed 105 gears. Previous to this, I have only dealt with 9 speed MTB gearsets.

I noticed that quite a few of the gears have a noticeable chain rub from the front mech. Before I get the screw drivers out and start tweaking things, how many of the gears would you expect to have some chain rub?

The chain rings are 50/34 with an 11/32 cassette.
StumpJumper HT

Canyon Endurace CF8.0

TrainerRoad Career

Strava

Comments

  • JayKosta
    JayKosta Posts: 635
    There will be several more gears that are 'useable' than are actually 'practical' to use - because of ratio near duplication, awkward 'next' shift motion, etc.
    Shifting will be most reliable and give useful 'next gear' choices if the chain is in the center area sprockets. Perhaps start rides using the 34 chain ring until you have warmed-up, and then front shift to the 50. After that, use the 34 for difficult or extended climbs.

    Jay Kosta
    Endwell NY USA
  • 964cup
    964cup Posts: 1,362
    It depends on the group set and the geometry of the bike. Bear in mind that some mechanical groupsets will have a trimming feature on the left shifter, allowing you to use a soft click on the shifter to move the mech outboard when in the 34 so it stops rubbing in higher gears (smaller cogs), and in some cases similarly inboard to reduce rub when cross-chaining the 50 and the lower gears. Electronic groupsets do this automatically, and SRAM's Yaw FD uses a complex motion to achieve the same outcome mechanically. In my experience different FD cages also have different tolerance for cross-chaining.
  • gcwebbyuk
    gcwebbyuk Posts: 1,926
    Ah, that makes sense, the left shifter does almost seem to have three positions - I will have a read up on it now...
    StumpJumper HT

    Canyon Endurace CF8.0

    TrainerRoad Career

    Strava
  • trailflow
    trailflow Posts: 1,311
    There is a trim on the small and big ring. On my set up with 11-28t,50/34 i can use all gears without any rub except big/big.

    Try this tutorial i made to set it up.
    viewtopic.php?f=40004&t=13004287&p=19295647#p19295647
  • Bozman
    Bozman Posts: 2,518
    After years of extensive research :) 11 speed - 18 usable gears, 10 speed - 16 usable gears, 9 speed- 18 usable gears with a good chain line.
  • Pigtail
    Pigtail Posts: 424
    So it's taken you several years and two upgraded group sets to get back where you started with 18 usable gears?

    My best group set to date was 9 speed Tiagra on a compact and I generally only used 7 gears. All except the two biggest cogs at the back and the big ring at the front. I retired it about six months ago and have just bought a new steed with Ultegra. I'm looking forward to having 9 gears instead of 7.

    In contrast on a triple I spend all my time switching from middle to big at the front.
  • Dippydog3
    Dippydog3 Posts: 414
    I have 11 speed Ultegra. Set up properly all are useable with no rub on the chain. regular fiddling with cable tension is required to keep it that way though.
  • Bozman
    Bozman Posts: 2,518
    It was a joke but there is something in it, I've had 10 speed DA that had 20 usable gears on one frame but that same groupset was transferred to another frame and I had about 16/17.
  • Pigtail
    Pigtail Posts: 424
    I recognised it as a joke and tried to respond in kind.

    Unfortunately it wasn't far off true that I only used 7 gears in my Tiagra setup. I remember trying to move from big to small ring at the front to discover the mech had stuck. It had been weeks or possibly months since I used it.
  • Bar Shaker
    Bar Shaker Posts: 2,313
    An 11 speed cassette is just over 1mm wider than a 10 speed.

    Set up correctly, there should be no rub.
    Boardman Elite SLR 9.2S
    Boardman FS Pro
  • desweller
    desweller Posts: 5,175
    Pigtail wrote:
    So it's taken you several years and two upgraded group sets to get back where you started with 18 usable gears?

    My best group set to date was 9 speed Tiagra on a compact and I generally only used 7 gears. All except the two biggest cogs at the back and the big ring at the front. I retired it about six months ago and have just bought a new steed with Ultegra. I'm looking forward to having 9 gears instead of 7.

    In contrast on a triple I spend all my time switching from middle to big at the front.

    Bloody hell you must be quick.
    - - - - - - - - - -
    On Strava.{/url}
  • markhewitt1978
    markhewitt1978 Posts: 7,614
    I generally reckon on a double type setup the number of usable practical gears is about the number in the cassette or perhaps a couple more as they overlap somewhat. So on an 11 speed I'd say there's about 11-13 usable ratios.
  • Pigtail
    Pigtail Posts: 424
    DesWeller wrote:
    Pigtail wrote:
    So it's taken you several years and two upgraded group sets to get back where you started with 18 usable gears?

    My best group set to date was 9 speed Tiagra on a compact and I generally only used 7 gears. All except the two biggest cogs at the back and the big ring at the front. I retired it about six months ago and have just bought a new steed with Ultegra. I'm looking forward to having 9 gears instead of 7.

    In contrast on a triple I spend all my time switching from middle to big at the front.

    Bloody hell you must be quick.

    Or I grind too much?

    It's not a road triple. It's an Edinburgh bike cx bike and the smallest front cog is something like a 26. The only time I can remember being in that ring, was by mistake.

    It seems to have even fewer gears in use, because of cross-chaining issues, so I use about 3 gears in the middle ring and the same in the big ring.

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