Wolf Tooth Chainrings and Cassette Conversions

In 2014 I had a 4 bike quiver:

26” wheel Santa Cruz Blur LTc for general riding using a 30t Wolf Tooth GPX Direct Mount Drop Stop Chain Ring, a Shimano XT 11-36t 10sp rear cassette, and 2013 Shimano XT 10sp Shadow Plus Med Cage derailleur.

29” wheel Specialized Crave SL for cross country and cyclocross racing using a 32t or a 34t Wolf Tooth GXP Direct Mount Drop Stop Chain Ring with Shimano XT 11-36t 10sp rear cassette converted with a Wolf Tooth 42t Giant Cog, Wolf Tooth 16t cog, and Sram X9 10sp Med Cage Type 2 derailleur.

29” wheel Santa Cruz Tallboy LTc for enduro racing using a 28t or a 30t Wolf Tooth GXP Direct Mount Drop Stop Chain Ring in combination with a Sram X01 11sp derailleur, and 10-42t 11sp cassette.

27.5” wheel Santa Cruz Nomad for riding bike parks, enduro racing, and downhill racing using a 34t Wolf Tooth GXP Direct Mount Drop Stop Chain Ring in combination with a Sram XX1 derailleur, and 10-42t 11sp cassette.

You will replace front chain rings more frequently on a 1x drive train vs. a 2x or 3x front chainring set up and there is no way around that.  Also front chain rings with smaller teeth count will wear faster than ones with larger teeth count due to concentrating the wear on a smaller number of teeth while pedaling.  I have found that Wolf tooth Drop Stop Chain Ring wear has been excellent even though wear is concentrated on one chaining all the time and I tend to run smaller front chainrings to make climbing easier on my arthritic 49 year old knees.  I am getting the same amount of life out of the Wolf Tooth Drop Stop chain rings as the much more expensive Sram 11sp chain rings I replaced on the Tallboy LTc and Nomad. 

The GXP direct mount chain rings offer a cleaner look and they are significantly lighter than the “Spider” style Sram chainring setup that came stock.  Sram has recently announced a direct mount chainring option but they are not American made and still more expensive than those offered by Wolf Tooth.

There are several other companies making similar wide/narrow tooth chainrings and wide range rear cassette conversions but only Wolf Tooth products are made 100% in America and to me that is very important.  I buy direct and my order ships from Minnesota by the next business day and arrives at my door no later than 3 business days from order placement and free shipping on orders over $50.

Check them out at http://www.wolftoothcomponents.com/ 

   

34t GXP Direct Mount in Red on the "Black Widow" Nomad

I personally think the Wolf Tooth Drop Stop Chain Rings look awesome, they save me money and weight, and I never suffered a dropped chain or drive train failure in 2014 during any rides or the 42 races I competed in (including several really good crashes). Note: I am using the correct 10/11 speed chains and clutch type derailleurs as recommended by Wolf Tooth.

My 1st Drop Stop Chainring was installed on 1 1x9 drivetrain with pretty good results

When I got my first Drop Stop Chain Ring and added it to an older 9 speed bike with no clutch type derailleur against the recommendation from Wolf Tooth I would occasionally drop a chain on DH terrain when using smallest 3 cogs on rear cassette.  However, an MRP Top Guide was all it took to solve that problem.

Who needs 1x11 when you have this awesome 11-42 1x10 drivetrain!

From my experience the 42t Giant Cog and 16t cog rear cassette conversion works flawless with a Sram X9 10sp Med Cage Type 2 derailleur and a Drop Stop GXP Direct Mount front chainring. I used this set up on my Crave SL 29r for Cyclocross and XC racing and suffered zero dropped chains in 18 months of hard racing without the use of a chain retention device. I enjoy a completely quiet drive train free of chain slap, and a full range of race gearing using 34t front chaining for Cyclocross and a 32t for XC Racing.   It is hard to tell I am not riding one of my XX1 or X01 1x11 equipped bikes.  I was able to buy the X9 shifter and derailleur, a 10sp XT cassette, the Wolf Tooth 42t Giant Cog, and Wolf Tooth 16t cog for less than the cost of a Sram XX1 or X01 cassette.  Yes, it weighs a few grams more than the Sram 11sp drive train, but it performs nearly as well.  On a price to performance ratio I think the full Sram 11 speed drivetrain is the loser in this comparison. The only real world performance advantage of the Sram 11sp drive train is the 10t rear cog.  That 1 tooth smaller cog transmits into several MPH greater top speed but that only really matters in highly competitive racing.

I however had a different experience trying to do the conversion on my Blur LTc a bike equipped with a 2013 Shimano XT 10sp Shadow Plus Med Cage derailleur.  The derailleur was not compatible with the 42t Giant Cog even using the extra long B Screw purchased from Wolf Tooth.  The arm that secures the cable would rub against the 42t cog in almost every gear and that conversion attempt never made it past the repair stand.

Wolf Tooth does have a solution for Shimano derailleur issues like I experienced in the form of the Goat Link.

http://www.wolftoothcomponents.com/collections/accessories/products/goatlink

Marc Garoutte
Epic Racing Cycling Team