9/4/15 9:07 PM

For several years my main touring bike has been setup using Shimano 10-speed road shifters (R701) with an MTB 9-speed rear derailleur (XT M772) and 10-speed 11-36 cassette. Now that Shimano have changed the cable pull for MTB 10-speed, MTB 11-speed, and road 11-speed, my question is: can either a Shimano 10- or 11-speed MTB rear derailleur be used with Shimano 11-speed road shifters and an 11-speed cassette. I did a bit of Googling but didn't find this particular question answered. I was thinking of using one of the 11-40 11-speed MTB cassettes to give myself a lower gear for long steep climbs when loaded touring - front chainrings are 42-30 dual chainring setup.

Or alternatively, would I be better off going with SRAM to match an 11-speed road shifter with an MTB rear derailleur, still using the XT 11-40 cassette, as this will fit my existing hub with the 8/9/10 speed cassette body. As far as I can tell from the SRAM compatibility page at https://www.sram.com/sram/mountain/technologies/exact-actuation I should be able to match an 11-speed road shifter with something like an X9 10-speed derailleur for shifting scross an 11-speed cassette.

9/5/15 8:59 AM

You have a roughly 22 inch low currently with the 30 small ring and 36 biggest cog.

You want to go to 20 gear inches or so ?.

It would be cheaper to just pop a 28 or 26 small ring.

The need to even consider 11 spd. in this case highlights the reason most touring rigs sport triple cranks. Easier to get to the 20 to 100 recommended gear range.

9/10/15 3:25 PM

In the end I swapped to using 38-27 chainrings and kept the existing cassette/derailleur etc, which gives me almost exactly the same reduction in low gear. In my youth I used triple cranksets, as with five speed freewheels it was the only way to get a decently low touring gear along with reasonably closely spaced gearing, but as soon as cassettes started getting enough cogs on the rear, I dispensed with the third chainring.