Can I upgrade to a 11-40 cassette with a wolf tooth?

malahouse

Hi everyone.

My bike has 2x9 drivetrain. FSA compact 48-32 with a 9-speed 11-36 on a Shiman Sora shifting mech.
Current derailleur is the Shimano Alvio Shadows M4000.

I would like to swap the cassette for a 9-speed 11-40, such as from Sunrace. Can this be done?

The specs for the Alivo derailleur state the maximum cog permitted is a 36.

I have looked into buying a road link, wolf tooth, but apparently it will not work with a 9-speed system.

Do you have suggestions please, in how this can be done?

Vino'sGhost

it aint going to work without massive drive train changes. It would be more effective to buy a new groupset

arlowood

malahouse wrote:

Hi everyone.

My bike has 2x9 drivetrain. FSA compact 48-32 with a 9-speed 11-36 on a Shiman Sora shifting mech.
Current derailleur is the Shimano Alvio Shadows M4000.

I would like to swap the cassette for a 9-speed 11-40, such as from Sunrace. Can this be done?

The specs for the Alivo derailleur state the maximum cog permitted is a 36.

I have looked into buying a road link, wolf tooth, but apparently it will not work with a 9-speed system.

Do you have suggestions please, in how this can be done?

I would give it a try and see how it goes. Shimano tend to be conservative about their rear mech capacities so the your Alvio Shadow may handle a 40t sprocket with some tweaking of the B-screw. In fact on other threads I have seen people suggest getting a longer B-screw from your LBS to help cope with large sprockets on short cage rear mechs.

You can pick up a 9-speed 11-40 cassette for about £35 so not a big outlay. This Ebay listing also offers an adaptor that looks as if it resembles a wolf tooth or road link. So I would guess this one will work with 9-speed as they are offering it with the cassette

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sunrace-CSM9 ... 2786047908

malahouse

arlowood wrote:

malahouse wrote:

Hi everyone.

My bike has 2x9 drivetrain. FSA compact 48-32 with a 9-speed 11-36 on a Shiman Sora shifting mech.
Current derailleur is the Shimano Alvio Shadows M4000.

I would like to swap the cassette for a 9-speed 11-40, such as from Sunrace. Can this be done?

The specs for the Alivo derailleur state the maximum cog permitted is a 36.

I have looked into buying a road link, wolf tooth, but apparently it will not work with a 9-speed system.

Do you have suggestions please, in how this can be done?

I would give it a try and see how it goes. Shimano tend to be conservative about their rear mech capacities so the your Alvio Shadow may handle a 40t sprocket with some tweaking of the B-screw. In fact on other threads I have seen people suggest getting a longer B-screw from your LBS to help cope with large sprockets on short cage rear mechs.

You can pick up a 9-speed 11-40 cassette for about £35 so not a big outlay. This Ebay listing also offers an adaptor that looks as if it resembles a wolf tooth or road link. So I would guess this one will work with 9-speed as they are offering it with the cassette

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sunrace-CSM9 ... 2786047908

Brilliant - thanks for that. it gives me some hope

Do I still need a wolf tooth our could it work without? Also, Wolf Tooth makes some expensive road links.
Are you aware of any other cheaper road link that could make this work?

Thanks!

Vino'sGhost

well if youre going to go for a big cassette option just stick an mtb rear mech on

you will need cassette, new chain, new rear mech. It starts to get expensive but it will work

DeVlaeminck

Genuine question, why do you want a 40 tooth sprocket ? It'll make relatively little difference as proportionally it's quite a small jump. If the cassette works straight off no problem but doesn't seem worth spending money or time on it.

malahouse

DeVlaeminck wrote:

Genuine question, why do you want a 40 tooth sprocket ? It'll make relatively little difference as proportionally it's quite a small jump. If the cassette works straight off no problem but doesn't seem worth spending money or time on it.

Yesterday I cycled up a 11% gradient for 1.5km with no panniers and it was a tough one on 32front/36rear. I don`t think I would be able to do it with 10kg of lugguage. And since I would like to do a bit of touring down to France/Italy I thought it would be useful to have a few extra gears.

malahouse

I guess an alternative to make a more substantial difference in gear range would be to swap the crankset from a 48/32 to a 44-28, which costs about £70 plus a new chain I assume.

svetty

malahouse wrote:

DeVlaeminck wrote:

Genuine question, why do you want a 40 tooth sprocket ? It'll make relatively little difference as proportionally it's quite a small jump. If the cassette works straight off no problem but doesn't seem worth spending money or time on it.

Yesterday I cycled up a 11% gradient for 1.5km with no panniers and it was a tough one on 32front/36rear. I don`t think I would be able to do it with 10kg of lugguage. And since I would like to do a bit of touring down to France/Italy I thought it would be useful to have a few extra gears.

:shock: :shock: Any smaller gear than that and you run the risk of toppling over through being stationary whilst still pedalling - unless you're a dab hand at track stands?

cycleclinic

you will encounter chain wrap issues in that there will be no chain tension in 32t and there first three gears probably.

malahouse

Svetty wrote:

malahouse wrote:

DeVlaeminck wrote:

Genuine question, why do you want a 40 tooth sprocket ? It'll make relatively little difference as proportionally it's quite a small jump. If the cassette works straight off no problem but doesn't seem worth spending money or time on it.

Yesterday I cycled up a 11% gradient for 1.5km with no panniers and it was a tough one on 32front/36rear. I don`t think I would be able to do it with 10kg of lugguage. And since I would like to do a bit of touring down to France/Italy I thought it would be useful to have a few extra gears.

:shock: :shock: Any smaller gear than that and you run the risk of toppling over through being stationary whilst still pedalling - unless you're a dab hand at track stands?

You can tell that to the future owners of the Trek 520. They could tackley the hill a 26front/36rear gear. That will be more of a somersaults than a topple 8)

perfectmark

A 3x9 setup would probably be a better option than trying to go to 40 on the rear.

DeVlaeminck

malahouse wrote:

DeVlaeminck wrote:

Genuine question, why do you want a 40 tooth sprocket ? It'll make relatively little difference as proportionally it's quite a small jump. If the cassette works straight off no problem but doesn't seem worth spending money or time on it.

Yesterday I cycled up a 11% gradient for 1.5km with no panniers and it was a tough one on 32front/36rear. I don`t think I would be able to do it with 10kg of lugguage. And since I would like to do a bit of touring down to France/Italy I thought it would be useful to have a few extra gears.

Seems fair.