Shimano GRX Front Derailleur with XT shifters, can they mix?

[travelcheck]

Hello all! I have a quick question I can't seem to find the answer to. I know that the pull ratios for rear derailleurs between Shimano road and mtb don't play well together, but what about the front?

I want to run a flat bar gravel setup XT shifters, XT rear derailleur, and a GRX front derailleur? Will it work?

(I know that there are slick mixed setups on Di2 that would solve my problem, but I am trying to avoid spending that much and I am not sure that the Di2 GRX front derailleur will allow 50mm tires)

[RudAwkning]

Originally Posted by travelcheck

Hello all! I have a quick question I can't seem to find the answer to. I know that the pull ratios for rear derailleurs between Shimano road and mtb don't play well together, but what about the front?

I want to run a flat bar gravel setup XT shifters, XT rear derailleur, and a GRX front derailleur? Will it work?

(I know that there are slick mixed setups on Di2 that would solve my problem, but I am trying to avoid spending that much and I am not sure that the Di2 GRX front derailleur will allow 50mm tires)

It won't work. You'll likely need the left shifter from this set of 11 speed flatbar road shifters:

https://bike.shimano.com/en-EU/produ.../SL-RS700.html

If you're running GRX 10 speed, you might have to get something like the Tiagra 4700 flatbar shifter.

Last time I tried, mtb/road mixed derailleurs didn't work with Di2. You could mix XT/XTR mechs with Dura Ace or Ultegra Di2 shifters, and Ultegra/Dura Ace mechs with XT Di2 trigger shifters (never tried XTR Di2 trigger shifters but they'd likely work with a pair of road derailleurs). Unless there's been a firmware upgrade, this is likely still the case.

[Spdntrxi]

per Shimano you cannot mix derailleurs (road/mtb). GRX= road line still.

[fredd]

Originally Posted by RudAwkning

If you're running GRX 10 speed, you might have to get something like the Tiagra 4700 flatbar shifter.

This might work, even if you're running 11 speed GRX. How much does a Deore FD cost, anyway?

[RudAwkning]

Originally Posted by fredd

This might work, even if you're running 11 speed GRX. How much does a Deore FD cost, anyway?

Assuming he has 11 spd XT shifters, 11 spd MTB front derailleurs max out at 38t. If he's running a GRX crank with 46t, there might be shifting issues.

Older 10 spd Dyna Sys front mechs were good up to 44t so maybe track down a 780 series XT front derailleur? Chainring spacing and chain width are slightly different between 10 and 11 but it should work.