Is 11 speed derailleurs sometimes seen on 10 speed shifters/10 speed cassettes since 11 speed RDs have a larger capacity / longer travel ? Very curious about this one guys.

If this is the case, i would like to buy the new mid cage R8000 11 speed Ultegra RD which has a capacity of 34T...which coincidentally is what i am looking at installing.

without going to the added trouble of installing a roadlink.

Which 10 speed shifter do you have? The only one made by Shimano that will work properly is the Tiagra 4700 series

Well, i actually just ordered the Shimano flat bar SL-R460 shifter set. I refuse to believe the Tiagra shifters are the only ones in the world that will work properly...and stuff

If only someone would answer my initial question i would be a happy camper.

No, that shifter will not work with the R8000 derailleur. Shimano does make a flat bar version of the 4700 shifter that will work

​​​​​​https://bike.shimano.com/en-US/produ...0/SL-4700.html

The biggest thing would be matching the cable pull ratio to the shifters. Travel also increases as the number of cogs traversed increases, but not by much going from ten cogs to eleven.

N.B. when I put a Campagnolo Mirage 9-speed derailleur on my wife's bike with a five cog freewheel, I did have to replace the inner limit bolt with a longer bolt to limit the travel so the chain wouldn't land in the spokes.

Fine, i`ll just not use the R8000 one then. I am sure there are other RDs that will do the job. When you say it will not work, it would be nice if you would substantiate this bold statement.

Am i walking into a potential minefield here guys asking this question?

It does not seem like shifters in general have that specific specification listed, so how would i know what cable pull they have?

Ah yes, the infamous B screw. I was hoping that would solve the puzzle at least for some.

The geometry and cable pull of Shimano 11-speed derailleurs and shifters changed from their 10-speed predecessors so they are not mix-and-match. The only 10-speed Shimano 10-speed shifters that uses the 11-speed cable pull are the Tiagra 4700 and it's flat bar equivalent.

Now that`s making some sense. Thanks for narrowing it down for me and anyone else out there who did not know.

If you're using flat bar shifters, you could go with Shimano mountain bike components. That will get you the extra range in the rear derailleur matched with flat bar compatible shifters. In fact, you should still be able to find the XT 10-speed components new.

Some additional information found on ebay :

SL-4600 fits on RD-4600/4601/5700/5701/6700 rear derailleurs;
SL-R460 fits on RD-4600/4601/5700/5701/6700 rear derailleurs;
SL-4700 fits on RD-4700 derailleur.

For future reference, the Shimano Compatibility Chart will answer all of these questions. If you already have the SL-R460 on order, you need to get 10-speed derailleurs (105/Ultegra/DA) if you want to keep those shifter, which means you will need an extender or you might be able to make a 10-speed MTB derailleur work. The new 10-speed Tiagra derailleur is not compatible with those shifters.

Right now i`m looking around for a suitable 6700 Ultegra RD to go with the SL-R460 i have on order. If that plan fails, i`ll probably end up with XTR shifters, derailleurs and cassette.

Wolf Tooth Road Link - will get you up to a 40T cog with a standard Shimano GS road derailleur. You do still need to mind the total range of the derailleur, but it will get you into a bigger cassette. There are people who have posted about being able to make 34T cassettes work without modification or by using a longer B-screw, but that's a "your milage may vary" situation. I know on my cross bike, I have a 32 and I don't think I could get anything else in there without modification.

--edit--
Here's your "official" RD compatibility for the shifter. You are correct that there's no DA. Basically, 10s Ultegra/105 or 9s Tiagra.

Ok thanks, i think this is more than enough data for my hard drive to process for the next 24 hours.

Regarding the roadlink, how long has it been on the market and what (if any) are the cons ?

Not the "B screw," the inner limit adjuster. The derailleur was designed for a wider, 9-cog block, and the stock inner limit bolt wasn't long enough to prevent the derailleur from hitting the spokes when used with a narrower 5-cog block.

Chart of derailleur pull ratio compatibility courtesy of another member (alexdi) who posted this a few days ago. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...#gid=847158527

I honestly couldn't say how long it's been out, and I've never personally used, or known anyone who's used it. I have seen lots of people sing it's praises online and I haven't heard anyone complain about it, but again, no personal experience here.

Just one more thing. Is there such a thing as cross compatibility between say Shimano and Sram etc etc.as far as shifters and derailleurs go?

In my instance, what i am asking is if the SL-R460 shifters would have any chance of working together with my Sram Apex 2x10 RD (&FD) or is the cable pull too sensitive/specific for each brand that such a thing would be out of the question?

Could someone also (please) elaborate on the pull ratio chart and what this means:

CAPACITY,
MAX FRONT DIFFERENTIAL,
MIN LOW,

Been looking at the max low to see how many each derailleur can tackle, but the rest is a little greek excuse my french.

If you want more range with Shimano 10 speed road shifters, you need to use a 9 speed MTB rear derailleur. They both use the same cable pull ratio. Shimano changed the cable pull between 10 speed road and MTB, so they are not compatible. None of the 11 speed stuff is compatible with 10 speed(Tiagra 4700 is a weird one, where they used 11 speed cable pull for shifting 10 speeds)

I am currently using 10 speed Shimano road shifters with a 9 speed Deore rear derailleur and an 11-34 10 speed cassette and it all works fine. You will need to use an inline cable adjuster, because the MTB rear derailleurs don't have the built in adjuster.

To answer your SRAM question, they are not compatible with any Shimano systems. SRAM MTB and road systems are compatible with each other for the rear, up to 10 speed. SRAM 11 speed MTB and road are not compatible with each other.

I think he's talking about the screw that prevents your derailleur from being destructively shifted into the spokes. I'm guessing you are referring to the screw that adjusts preload of the upper or lower spring-loaded pivot. It affects how much clearance there is between the upper jockey wheel and the largest rear sprocket, and more generally, the free length of chain.

CAPACITY refers to the total amount of chain the derailleur can handle, which is calculated by determining
a) the difference in tooth counts between the biggest and smallest cogs, and
b) the difference in tooth counts between the biggest and smallest chainrings (if more than one.)
and adding those two numbers together. Also known as Total Gear Capacity or TGC.

MAX FRONT DIFFERENTIAL is the maximum value for the second number (b) described above that the rear derailleur can handle. This is dictated largely by cage length.

MIN LOW refers to the smallest low gear cog the derailleur will reliably shift to. Note that some of the derailleurs in the chart have mathematical expression for low gear range; the MIN LOW is the number on the left of the expression, smaller than which you should not use.