-
It’s an idea worth exploring. In principle:
-You could install an 8sp cassette with some spacers to fit on the 11sp freehub.
-An 8sp non-indexed friction shifter would work, no need to get an 11sp if you’re swapping cassettes. Also doesn’t need to be a fancy one, as long as it’s non indexed. If you get an indexed one (that clicks into each gear), you might encounter issues with the rear derailleur not shifting properly.The concerns would be:
-Would the rear derailleur shift? Initially I don’t see why it wouldn’t with a non indexed shifter, but 1x11sp SRAM setups might have a weird derailleur movement arc or something. Bear in mind that derailleurs are designed to move in a predetermined pattern, and that this pattern takes into account the amount of cable pulled by the shifter, which varies by manufacturer and groupset. If you don’t take cable pull into account, you might not be able to use a cog or two.
-Would the wider 8sp chain fit in the rear derailleur? I’m not sure, worth checking.- Would the wider chain prematurely wear away at your 11sp chainring and derailleur wheels, or cause dropping issues? Not sure.
- Would the wider chain prematurely wear away at your 11sp chainring and derailleur wheels, or cause dropping issues? Not sure.
Adhiero-
That's why initially I wanted to go with friction shifter that would accommodate 11sp cassette, that way you could swap to and from different cassettes with minimum hassle. However using sram road rd becomes a problem and while it's not without solutions it is way more expensive as to just downgrade shifter with cassette.
I'm not too concerned about chainring as it is one of the direct mount steel ones on sram crankarms. Cheap as chips and very durable.
Sprockets. I'm pretty sure would be okay as I had them swapped for generic tourney ones for a bit, while I looked to replace bearings on original ones, and it did a job, however unsexy it was. Clearing the cage might be different story, will have to measure.
Dave_Whitinsky
Heya. I have a conundrum here. I have a Sutra with risers on 1 x 11 setup (rival long cage/slx casette + apex trigger) as a everything bike. Takes me on some hikes during weekends and gets me to where I need to go every other day. Or at least it used to. Since I've got one of them young'uns my time on a bike drastically reduced and last proper shenanigan outdoors was last August. So with that in mind and looming cross-country move happening next year, keeping 1x11 setup is costly and arguably silly. I'd convert it to singles peed but on the off-chance of some magic happening, and me having some free time allowing for adventures, I'd like an option of at least some gears. So my idea was to keep rival rd and just chuck a 7/8 speed cassette on it and use a thumbie friction shifter for it. Is it a stupid idea? would it work? How would I go about it? As far as I know there are just couple thumbie friction shifters that would work for 11sp and they are quite $$. Or I could get a jtec yoke or one of them problem solvers. But would vanilla 8sp thumbie work with 8sp cassette with rival rd?