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...
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Questions/Support/Help
Road and MTB SIS compatability?
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Posted 14 years ago #
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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 # -
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 # -
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 # -
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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