10 speed cassette on 11-speed shifters works

[redir]

I thought this wasn't supposed to work? I have a race coming up tomorrow so the other day I pulled out my race wheels and commuted to work the last couple days to make sure everything is right. This morning when climbing a hill I shifted towards my lowest gear and noticed that there was one more 'click' in the shifter. Fortunately I didn't sned the chain into my spokes but then it dawned on me that I had set these wheels up to ride my ten speed cross bike on the road.

The wheels have a 10-speed cassette on it and I am using that with 11-speed 105 shifters and it works perfectly across the whole cassette.

I thought that was not supposed to work?

[efixler]

I thought the pull ratios were different, so that does sound weird.

[Tony]

Works but not perfectly.

[prototoast]

Originally Posted by efixler

I thought the pull ratios were different, so that does sound weird.

Pull ratios are irrelevant to this, since he's using 11 speed shifters and derailleurs. This is just about cassette spacing. The spacing between cogs on 11 compared to 10 speed cassettes is about 5 percent less. Ignoring what happens at the limits, if you're lined up in the center of the cassette, it's going to shift pretty cleanly throughout the range. The issues are at the limits where you'll have one dead click, and you should have to adjust the limit screws to avoid shifting off the end.

[redir]

Originally Posted by prototoast

Pull ratios are irrelevant to this, since he's using 11 speed shifters and derailleurs. This is just about cassette spacing. The spacing between cogs on 11 compared to 10 speed cassettes is about 5 percent less. Ignoring what happens at the limits, if you're lined up in the center of the cassette, it's going to shift pretty cleanly throughout the range. The issues are at the limits where you'll have one dead click, and you should have to adjust the limit screws to avoid shifting off the end.

Right. I got lucky that I didn't shift off the end. The limit must be a hair short. Interestingly though, when I first got this bike and all my wheels were ten speed I did the other trick which was to buy an 11-speed cassette and remove one cog. Since I normally use a 12x28 I didn't want to remove the 12 so I would remove the 15 or something. I tried several different ones and in every situation it shifted like garbage because of the mis matched ramps. Of course going to a 13x28 would work.

This actually works a lot better then that technique.