CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Questions/Support/Help

Road and MTB SIS compatability?

(5 posts)
  • Started 14 years ago by Smudge
  • Latest reply from druidh
  • This topic is resolved

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  1. Smudge
    Member

    A question for the tinkerers! Are shimano (and similar) road and MTB gear parts interchangeable? ie. could I use for instance Sora or 105 shifters with an MTB deraileur? Are mtb and road cassetes the same spacing between cogs?
    May be a dumb question, if so apologies, but if you don't ask...

    Posted 14 years ago #
  2. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Yes and no.

    It's important with the drivetrain to make sure you use 8-speed bits together and don't mix in 9 or 10-speed bits. The chains on the latter are narrower and the cogs closer together.

    A lot of Shimano parts are interchangeable / interoperable. My touring bike for instance has Tiagra (what you might call "road") shifters and front dérailleur and Deore-XT (what you might call "MTB") rear dérailleur and cassette.

    Plenty of road bikes use "MTB" rear derailleurs to give a wider range of gears for hill climbing, or people new to their bike and wanting a more forgiving setup.

    I (think) Sora is 8 speed and 105 is 9 speed so the 2 aren't interchangeable. However there's a range of "non family" parts i.e. not a Sora or a whatever, just one that works with 8 speed components and says Shimano on it.

    Does that help? I don't know. I guess the simple answer is check the tech docs on the shimano website, they've got all their manuals and instruction sheets as handy PDFs.

    Posted 14 years ago #
  3. Smudge
    Member

    Yup that helps thanks :-)
    I'm planning my next bike once I've saved some more pennies, if I play my cards right I may even manage to keep it S-1 if it is a replacement for the hybrid ;-)) Excellent!

    (I love the good steel frame on my MTB, I love the wide range of gears, (good for loads and steep hills *and* tall gears for the downhills :-)), on my hybrid, and it's ability to do unsurfaced paths when necessary, I like the drops and shifters on my roadbike... so I'm feeling maybe a Bob Jackson World Tour frameset, 700c touring rims on MTB hubs, megarange cassette and "MTB" deraileurs/chainset the same as my MTB will provide the ideal mix of my favourite bits, gearing to suit me and look luverly as well! )

    Posted 14 years ago #
  4. kaputnik
    Moderator

    I'm sure there will be no problem sourcing an STI lever for dropped bars that will do what you are wanting it to do. After all, you've basically just described a touring bike!

    Posted 14 years ago #
  5. druidh
    Member

    Shimano "Road" STIs can be used with an MTB rear mech, but you need a Road front one.

    If you want some very low gearing, you can go with all Road and stick on a triple and a 12-28 cassette. Alternatively, Aa the Shimano MTB groupsets are now 10-speed (for 2011) you could use a compact and a 11-32 cassette but you'd need a long cage MTB mech.

    Posted 14 years ago #

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