Ritchey Zeta II wheels - Breakaway question

[mass_biker]

Currently using Ritchey Zeta II wheels on my Ritchey Breakaway (rim brake version) and Shimano/SRAM 11 speed. As most folks know, these wheels are great for travel as they allow for the freehand body/cassette to be removed entirely for “flat” packing in the Ritchey case. I was considering moving to a 1x11 or 1x12 set up for even easier breakdown etc. Per the Ritchey website, these hubs are compatible for “Shimano/SRAM 10/11/12”. Has anyone used a 12 speed cassette on these wheels? And if going from 2x11 to 1x11 (or 1x12), what has been the front/rear combo that works best?

Thank you
m_b

[eddief]

I changed out the original Shimano freehub body with the XD one available as a spare part from Ritchey. If you do that then you can install cassettes that go down to 10 teeth which is a good thing for your high gear when running 1x.

[mistermo]

I've got extensive experience with this and, like Eddief, swapped my Ritchey Zeta Shimano freehub for the Zeta SRAM XD(R) and am now run SRAM AXS 1x12 with a 10-44 cassette. I've not tried Shimano 1x12, but believe the Shimano 12s cassette uses the same freehub as Shimano 11s.

Before SRAM came out with their XPLR line and a 10-44 cassette, I converted from SRAM 2x11 to SRAM AXS 1x12 with a Shimano mtb 10-45 microspline cassette and a SRAM AXS XO mtb derailleur. Everything worked great with the SRAM to Shimano shifting.

The best solution for me is the wireless SRAM AXS XPLR group, with a 10-44 cassette on an XD(R) freehub.

FWIW, those Ritchey Zeta wheels are fantastic for their ease of cassette removal, but some others do this too, such as DT240s. I've not found any as easy as the Ritchey Zetas, but the DTs work too with some coaxing.

The issue as I see it, with a Shimano 1x12 road setup, is the limited cassette range. Unless you go microspline cassette body with an mtb cassette, or SRAM's XPLR 10-44 cassette, the cassette range wasn't adequate for riding in some parts of the country, ie. San Francisco.