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MTB vs Road shifting - is road inherently smoother than MTB?
coffeebreak:
Recently built up a Salsa Journeyer with Deore M5100 and earlier a Diamondback with M6100 - both with Sunshine cassette before switching to SRAM NX and Shimano XT. Because the shifting was terrible. While it improved with SRAM cassettes, I can never get the same feeling as my road groupset - Ultegra/105 or even Tiagra 4700 all of which are positively smoother shifting with almost no "bad" spots. The Ultegra especially is near perfect despite being years old at this point.
On the other hand my M5/6100 groups always have 2 or 3 indexing problems which I can't seem to get rid of. I tried changing their default shifters to SLX and XT (M8100) but that didn't help. So apparently shifters aren't the problem.
Should I just assume that jumps between cogs are much larger on MTB compared to road cassette causing the inferior shifting performance? Or is there a trick to index mtb groups which is different from road groups? I read that you should let your brand new chain and cassette run in for some period to settle them down with each other which I did. The M6100 has about 200 miles while the M5100 has close to 300 but shifting hasn't improved. Do they need even longer run in period? I'm baffled.
carbonazza:
A good cable tension or lateral position of an electronic derailleur are generally easy.
The right chain length and a B-screw well set, are to me what generally makes a smooth shifting, even on an MTB.
bxcc:
--- Quote from: carbonazza on March 20, 2023, 06:02:19 PM ---The right chain length and a B-screw well set, are to me what generally makes a smooth shifting, even on an MTB.
--- End quote ---
I find that most bikes, even from reputable shops, have the B-screw in too far (pulley too far from cassette) and the chain is at least two links too long. Those two adjustments make a significant difference in shifting performance.
coffeebreak:
Been playing with the the B screw to no avail. These Shimano derailleurs also have a marking on the underside to indicate 51t cassette teeth mark. Adjusted accordingly and there is slight improvement but is still not 100%. Under load shifting is painful. From the ongoing sale on AliExpress I got 12s groupset and DT Swiss MicroSpline freehub + 10-51 M6100 cassette while the chain will be 12speed SRAM or Shimano which I already have. With this I will have eliminated all Chiner components from the drivetrain. Fingers crossed!
carbonazza:
--- Quote from: coffeebreak on March 25, 2023, 01:42:15 PM ---Been playing with the the B screw to no avail. These Shimano derailleurs also have a marking on the underside to indicate 51t cassette teeth mark. Adjusted accordingly and there is slight improvement but is still not 100%. Under load shifting is painful. From the ongoing sale on AliExpress I got 12s groupset and DT Swiss MicroSpline freehub + 10-51 M6100 cassette while the chain will be 12speed SRAM or Shimano which I already have. With this I will have eliminated all Chiner components from the drivetrain. Fingers crossed!
--- End quote ---
The chain length is quite important to have a smooth shifting too.
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