The quest for perfect gearing

Modern cyclocross, gravel and touring bikes that are equiped with a 1X transmission are slowly taking over. Yet, they all have the same limitation which is that you will eventually miss some gear range. Going all out on the flats in a group at a decent cadence means you will most probably not be able to climb up the steep sections of any unbeaten paths you will encounter on a adventure trip.

With one chainring, you sacrifice either top speed or climbing capability. The ideal set-up would be one where you can have both. In other words a mountain bike gearing with a road/gravel chainring.

Something that manufacturers don't offer to the masses, unless you are willing to spend the money for a Sram Force or Red AXS (therefore Etap) group and spend a extra chunk of money to buy a Eagle AXS rear derailleur.

Still, you would ask yourself, and you would be right, why aren't mountain bike derailleurs compatible with road shift levers and vice-versa?

Modern mountain bikes have wide range cassettes but small chainrings. And gravel, road and cyclocross bikes that have a 1x drivetrain have decent chainring sizes, varying from 40 to 46, but have narrower range cassettes. Why can't we combine both?

Manufacturers like Sram and Shimano have developped their road and mountain bike derailleurs with different cable pulls. Meaning, if you actuate a rear mountain bike derailleur with a road bike shift lever, the derailleur will not travel the right distance to put the chain exactly over the cog, resulting in poor and erratic shifting.

And if you ever read somewhere about old frankenstein mods involving mixing Sram and Shimano parts... we can't even tell you how far you should steer away from that path.

Mixing Shimano mtb and road bike derailleurs is, just like Sram, only possible with Di2, which again, most of us can't afford or just are not ready to spend on a Gravel, travel, touring bike.

Any alternative?

#BudgetMullet

After reading and doing some research, we decided to try the #budgetmullet conversion.

The idea is to convert a Sram Eagle 12 speed mountain bike derailleur into a 11 speed road derailleur that uses the actual road cable pull which the Sram Apex, Rival, Force or Red use.

Stuff you will need

-A Sram Eagle GX, X01 ou XX1 derailleur

-A Sram road derailleur, ideally a Force 1X since all parts can be removed and used on the mtb derailleur.

-Tools

-Patience

The concept

Why choose a mountain bike derailleur? Because the derailleur cage allows the use of a 50 or even 52 cog.

The part that allows the derailleur to move the right distance when the shifter is activated is the part we will take from one derailleur and install on the other. Lucky for us, that is not such a difficult task.

You will not be able to do that conversion with a Sram NX derailleur as the cable guide (the fin) and the adjuster can't be removed.

We could not manage to find those parts in the service parts offered by Sram, so you will need at least 2 derailleurs to do the conversion if you don't already have a Force 1X derailleur.

Note that unless you plan on using a narrow range cassette on your mountain bike, (some day the #brushcutconversion will be a thing in the mountain bike world) the force derailleur will be useless.

Keep it for spare parts.

How it's done

Here are the steps to convert your Sram Eagle derailleur into a road derailleur.

1- Locate and remove the cable fin from both derailleur.

Be carefull not to lose the C-clip. This little thing can fly.

2- Remove the Sram Force 1X cable adjuster and the X01 cable pulley

3- Install the Sram Force 1x cable fin on the Sram X01 derailleur

4- Install the cable adjuster on your X01 derailleur

5-Install your newly hacked derailleur on your bike

6- Install your wide range cassette

Done! You can now run a 11-50 ou 11-52 cassette on your gravel bike.

Enjoy your ride!

Final words

Although we did test this set-up and have had great success with it, we can't say if you will have the same results.

First: our technicians have been around for a while and their skills might be part of why this conversion was a success.

Secondo: We used two brand new derailleurs and it was easy to do the conversion. A used derailleur, that might have a worned fin, or a worned out adjuster or even a slightly bent cage might not give the same results.

We tested this conversion with 3 different cassettes and they all worked well without having to adjust the derailleur nor the b-tension screw.

The set-up was tested on the following Cassettes:

• Shimano R-8000 11-30T
• Sunrace 11-40T
• Sunrace 11-50T

Note that you may also need to replace your chain which might be too short after the conversion. You can use any 11 or 12 speed chain except the Sram Road AXS chain (the one with the flat top).

11 and 12 speed chains have the same inner measurements.

We hope you enjoyed the read. Visit our Instagram page and leave us comments about your #budgetmullet conversion.