Frankenorange
Orange 🍊 Fan
I am impressed with Sram clutched mechs(have x9 medium and x0 small). I like not hearing a chain slapping about on the chainstay and they are suprisingly tough mechs. Earlier this year i had a fairly small branch, that was on the ground, push the cage over into the spokes. One spoke went between the inner cage and the lower jockey wheel and the mech went backwards with the wheel and the drivetrain locked up.
This only happened at walking pace, but i was grinding over some singletrack and forces were good enough to severely bend a cnc'd hanger as the mech had gone so far back. The B screw was bent round on itself. The cage had a slight twist, too.
This was a 2nd hand mech so i didn't that feeling when you know 100's of pounds have been bent out of shape, but it was a bit of an 'oh sh1t' moment. Out with the allen keys and chain splitter and completed the ride single speed.
The cage un-twisted easily, B-screw was replaced along with the hanger and the mech indexed just tickety boo. No way would i pay new prices but you could do alot worse 2nd hand. These mechs are serviceable(clutch parts, springs, pivot bolts etc) and tuneable(clutch adjustments and cage lengths), too, and work with a variety of road and mtb shifters and have given me 1000's of miles of trouble free(apart from the above!) service.
The medium mech will handle a 36t rear sprocket with the mech mounted on a standard dropout hanger. If you want more capacity out of either a medium, or long cage, then fitting an extender and fitting larger jockeys works well. The cheapest option i found was using two of the largest jockeys from a newer Altus mech. I think they are 15t, work with the Sram jockey wheel screws and increases capacity by a few links. They do make the cage a bit wider, though, so beware if you are running VERY little clearance to the spokes.
Also; a medium cage hung from a short hanger extender, with the Altus jockey mod, can be pushed way outside of Srams specs. I have a post elsewhere, on the site, but i think i had a 13-40 cassette and 33-52 up front. It made for a long chain and i wouldn't use this setup long term, but it worked very well and was just a bit if fun to see where the limits are. Chainstay lengths were your normal found on a late 90's decent hardtail mtb. The front changing was easily dealt with by a 2x10 X9 which is also way outside Sram specs. My cassettes are always Shimano and chains KMC.
You can also happily shift 10 cogs of an 11 speed cassette with an 11 speed chain, too, with 10 speed shifters. There wasn't any problem and, to be honest, i felt the 10 of 11 setup shifted better than the pure 10 setup. I can confirm now that the 11 speed Sram bar end shifters work very well with an X0 on 11 speed cassettes and the front friction shifter will happily work a Sram X9 on 33/50, 34/50, 33/52, 36/50 (all 11 speed Sram chainrings) and 34/46 old school Middleburn rings. This shifter also perfectly shifts a Shimano CX70, but unlike the X9 you do get a little chainrub in small-small. Sram double tap 10 speed "brifters" shift all of the above perectly, but not the CX70 front mech as the cage throat is narrower than the x9.
Your mileage may vary and i am not a real doctor. Just make sure all your 10 and 11 is exact actuation and your blood pressure will stay normal, though, and my patient has been a '98 Orange O2 for reference.
This only happened at walking pace, but i was grinding over some singletrack and forces were good enough to severely bend a cnc'd hanger as the mech had gone so far back. The B screw was bent round on itself. The cage had a slight twist, too.
This was a 2nd hand mech so i didn't that feeling when you know 100's of pounds have been bent out of shape, but it was a bit of an 'oh sh1t' moment. Out with the allen keys and chain splitter and completed the ride single speed.
The cage un-twisted easily, B-screw was replaced along with the hanger and the mech indexed just tickety boo. No way would i pay new prices but you could do alot worse 2nd hand. These mechs are serviceable(clutch parts, springs, pivot bolts etc) and tuneable(clutch adjustments and cage lengths), too, and work with a variety of road and mtb shifters and have given me 1000's of miles of trouble free(apart from the above!) service.
The medium mech will handle a 36t rear sprocket with the mech mounted on a standard dropout hanger. If you want more capacity out of either a medium, or long cage, then fitting an extender and fitting larger jockeys works well. The cheapest option i found was using two of the largest jockeys from a newer Altus mech. I think they are 15t, work with the Sram jockey wheel screws and increases capacity by a few links. They do make the cage a bit wider, though, so beware if you are running VERY little clearance to the spokes.
Also; a medium cage hung from a short hanger extender, with the Altus jockey mod, can be pushed way outside of Srams specs. I have a post elsewhere, on the site, but i think i had a 13-40 cassette and 33-52 up front. It made for a long chain and i wouldn't use this setup long term, but it worked very well and was just a bit if fun to see where the limits are. Chainstay lengths were your normal found on a late 90's decent hardtail mtb. The front changing was easily dealt with by a 2x10 X9 which is also way outside Sram specs. My cassettes are always Shimano and chains KMC.
You can also happily shift 10 cogs of an 11 speed cassette with an 11 speed chain, too, with 10 speed shifters. There wasn't any problem and, to be honest, i felt the 10 of 11 setup shifted better than the pure 10 setup. I can confirm now that the 11 speed Sram bar end shifters work very well with an X0 on 11 speed cassettes and the front friction shifter will happily work a Sram X9 on 33/50, 34/50, 33/52, 36/50 (all 11 speed Sram chainrings) and 34/46 old school Middleburn rings. This shifter also perfectly shifts a Shimano CX70, but unlike the X9 you do get a little chainrub in small-small. Sram double tap 10 speed "brifters" shift all of the above perectly, but not the CX70 front mech as the cage throat is narrower than the x9.
Your mileage may vary and i am not a real doctor. Just make sure all your 10 and 11 is exact actuation and your blood pressure will stay normal, though, and my patient has been a '98 Orange O2 for reference.
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