Originally Posted by
Dean V
DA 7800 struggles for clearance with a 28t. No way it will work with a 36t. 11-36 is also way too gappy for riding a tt or any serious road racing for that matter. Only application for 1x drivetrain is a flat tt. Anything else you will be compromising. Also front shifting works so well now there is even less reason to get rid of it.
Well of course a DA7800 wouldn't natively suppport an 11-36, I am using a WolfTooth 'Roadlink' adapter. Actually got the bike running last night and have it with me today to do a shake down ride after work. No Handlebar wrap yet and still got to fine tune it but it's cabled and alive and I took it down the road and back a few times.
Yes it is flat around most places here. Compromising? Sure it's a compromise. It's always a compromise... I mean I could buy a fancy electronic 2x11 and have dreamy shifting that never needs cables adjusted. I could just buy a whole new modern bike with lots of modern upgrades and ditch the mid grade 80's bike. This is just a project for me. Also for the Tri bike, it will still have more range and similar gear spacing as what it has now. Sure I could upgrade to a completly modern and have even more, but I don't necessarily like the look of modern groupsets, even the 7800 crank is pushing my limits of asthetics on an old steel bike but at least it still takes a standard 5 bolt ring and is polished finished. And I enjoy thinking out of the box and being different I guess. I'm not in this to win, just have a good time.
So far so good, it shifts nicely and covers the 11-36 cassette except it falls a hair short of the center on the 36 sprocket to where the teeth are making contact with the side plates of the chain and making a little bit of noise. I might have to put back one of the spacers I left out when I put the cassette on the wheel, to shift the cassette outward just a smidgeon. To further make this project unique, it's also a Shimergo 1x10 using new Campy Veloce 10 speed ergos with the DA7800 components. I like the grip and asthetics of the Campy brifter much better than Shimano (another reason I didn't go with 5800 group) and it was pretty darn cheap brand new. But I didn't want to mess with their powertorque cranksets (though they do look very nice).
If I already had a 2x11 that was installed and working, I don't think I'd want to remove a bunch of stuff just to limit it to 1x11, that doesn't make any sense to me. Just don't use the small chainring if you don't want it.