Cassette Spacers.... General Opinion on 11 Speed

[Chislenko]

To cut a long story short every so many hundred miles I have to re torque up my cassette to stop it "clanking"

Wheels are Bontrager Aelious Pro 3 (spelling), cassette it s a Shimano something or other.

Have never experienced this with any other wheel / cassette combination, just wondering if anyone has tried ditching the spacer on an 11 speed?

 

[Ajax Bay]

You have an 11sp freehub. You have an 11sp cassette (assumed from thread title).
Why would you need a spacer? That was there for if you wish to fit a 10sp cassette on that freehub (1.85mm plus the 1mm already needed on a 9/10sp freehub).
The reason this is coming loose is because even when 40Nm tight insufficient threads are engaged.
https://si.shimano.com/en/pdfs/dm/CS0004/DM-CS0004-04-ENG.pdf

 

[Chislenko]

You have an 11sp freehub. You have an 11sp cassette (assumed from thread title).
Why would you need a spacer? That was there for if you wish to fit a 10sp cassette on that freehub (1.85mm).
The reason this is coming loose is because even when 40Nm tight insufficient threads engaged.
https://si.shimano.com/en/pdfs/dm/CS0004/DM-CS0004-04-ENG.pdf
View attachment 705418

That was my thinking Ajax, but the bumpf with the wheels said to fit it even with an 11 speed which I assumed was a peculiarity of the Bontrager wheels.

Certainly the Mavic wheels which these replaced never demonstrated this issue.

I think I may give it a go without the spacer and see what happens.

 

[Ajax Bay]

give it a go without the spacer and see what happens.

Provided when you tighten the lockring it clicks 'a lot' (x6) or >40Nm then 'job done'.

 

[Ajax Bay]

Far too much detail on the link I offered on another thread:
https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/shimano-spacer-query.291674/#post-6970352

And Part 2: https://www.slowtwitch.com/Tech/Cassette_How-To_-_Part_2_3257.html

 

[ColinJ]

You have an 11sp freehub. You have an 11sp cassette (assumed from thread title).
Why would you need a spacer? That was there for if you wish to fit a 10sp cassette on that freehub (1.85mm plus the 1mm already needed on a 9/10sp freehub).

It depends what cassette you are using! I was caught out by it...

I had that recently on the 1 x 11 bike that I keep in Devon. I had tightened the lockring as much as I reasonably could but the cassette still creaked. Then I discovered that an 11-speed MTB cassette (such as the 11-42 on the bike) needs a 1.85 mm spacer on an 11-speed road freehub (such as on my wheel).



I fitted a spacer, refitted the cassette, tightened the lockring and...



... the creak was gone!

 

[Chislenko]

Yes Colin, have seen that in relation to MTB.

In my case it is a road bike setup with 11 speed road bike wheels and cassette so I think I will whizz off the cassette, remove the spacer and give it a go.

It was always my impression that the spacer was for adapting 8 / 9 / 10 speed and wasn't needed on an 11 as per Ajax's chart.

Maybe the instructions from Bontrager were just nonsense 😟

Will report back for the benefit of anyone else who may read this in the future.

 

[Ajax Bay]

Colin has revealed the anomaly and why they provide a spacer. But I looked at

Bontrager Aelious Pro 3

and it was a road wheel: https://www.trekbikes.com/gb/en_GB/...ontrager-aeolus-pro-3-tlr-road-wheel/p/14834/
Think it'd be worth you pointing out the flaw in their instructions to Bontrager/Trek.

 

[Deleted member 121159]

11-34 also needs a spacer.

 

[Chislenko]

11-34 also needs a spacer.

Why would the amount of teeth affect the width of the cassette and the need for a spacer? Doesn't compute for me.

 

[Ajax Bay]

@Chislenko Stop 'fighting the white' (iykyk)
Because the large sprockets for the lower gears on an 'MTB' cassette can overhang the hub rim thus making the effective depth (wot slides onto the freehub splines) same size as a 10sp road cassette. A 'proper' road cassette (max 28t sprocket can't do this so the road 11sp cassette is wider (and thus doesn't need a spacer)).
Read the slowtwitch articles if you want more.

 

[Deleted member 121159]

Why would the amount of teeth affect the width of the cassette and the need for a spacer? Doesn't compute for me.

Because Mr. Shimano says so.

 

[Chislenko]

@Chislenko Stop 'fighting the white' (iykyk)
Because the large sprockets for the lower gears on an 'MTB' cassette can overhang the hub rim thus making the effective depth

But, to be fair we have previously established that in the case being discussed that we are talking road bike not MTB.

I think people are going off at a tangent (who would have thought that on this site 🙂

 

[newts]

Some lock rings have longer threads than others, I'd mixed mine up whilst putting a cassette on the turbo & wouldn't stay tight.

 

[fossyant]

But, to be fair we have previously established that in the case being discussed that we are talking road bike not MTB.

I think people are going off at a tangent (who would have thought that on this site 🙂

No doesn't always matter - folk sometimes use a MTB or road hub. The cassettes are different from 11 speed despite spacing and road/MTB hub can be different.

My go to is make sure there is not much more than 2-3mm of bottom sprocket overhanging the freehub - you can get a pack of different width spacers on line for not much, if concerned - also good for spacing out different wheels for fast swaps as all aren't the same position.

I run 7 speed on 8-10 speed hubs, so need at least 4mm of spacer, sometimes 6mm