Anyone created a 3 x10 drivetrain

tubicus

i am about to embark on restoring my first bike - she is a trek fuel 80. I have some spares - a 1x10 sunrace cassette, mx8000 10 speed derailleur, saint 10speed shifter. would this work whilst keeping the 3 front chainrings?
I know chain length may be an issue but in theory shouldn't this work giving a mass loads of in-appropriate gears even a granny could use.

cheers

mattyfez

Chain line and crosschaining would be an issue, plus 10 speed chain might be too narrow to work well on a tripple.

cooldad

Chain will work ok, lots of 10 speed came out as 3x10. I have one (now 2x10).

Isn't M8000 11 speed?

tubicus

yeah - i had trouble with the cage clearance on 10speed deraileur - kept hitting the dish sized top gear on the sunrace - even with b screw wound out - took out 2 new deraileurs. so i found out that an 11pseed derail worked a treat with this set up - gave me the clearence it needed - i could have opted for a cage change but decided to try the 11 speed

cooldad

Shouldn't work properly with 10 speed shifters, the pull ratio is different.

I think.

The Rookie

You may well find the mech runs out of capacity with a 3x wide range, in addition why bother, you cant actually ride a 22:42 ratio.

tubicus

on paper you are right - it shouldn't work. I rode it like this successfully for 18mnths before frame issues made me garage the bike. shifted great, my 1 x 10 setup was working without issues - luck or my bad bike mechanics working. so gonna try again but using 3 upfront.
not sure about ratios tho - i wasnt expecting to use all gears - just have a few extra avaliable, also didnt want to take front 3 off and play with chain lines to get the same 1 x 10 as i had before.

The Rookie

But you are carrying extra weight and a potential mech capacity issue for 2/3 gears you will never use, you have no increase in effective range at all.

mattyfez

Do you really need 30 gears though? You are not an HGV!