Hey everyone!
Background: I have a Cannondale Topstone 2 2022 with GRX 400 groupset. The stock setup is a 11-34 cassette with 30/46 chainrings. Officially, the largest cassette one an run within spec would be 11-36. However Shimano is apparently quite conservative and quite a few people have had success running larger cassettes. Anecdotes say 11-40 is achievable without a goatlink.
I swapped in a Sunrace 11-40 10 speed cassette and it works like a charm. I needed to bring the B screw in quite a bit, but shifting has barely been affected.
Question: I'm unsure about the chain length. I sized the chain using the big/big +2 links method. It works fine in practice, but it seems a bit short in the big/big configuration. The derailleur is pretty extended and I'm wondering whether I should add two more chain links.. It does have some slack left – if I push it towards the front it will move up a bit, and if I push down on the chain it can still take up some Slack. I don't really intend on using that, but I want to avoid mechanical damage if I happen to shift into it.
Pictures show big/big and small/small.
What do you think? Thanks in advance!
by Hopeful_Bug1977
4 Comments
Send it. But avoid big-big.
Looks fine visually. That’s as extended as I’d want my rd to be. If there’s no skipping or issues pedaling in big/big, you’re probably good to go. But yeah I would avoid pedaling in that ratio under any kind of load anyways.
Loooks fine
You never use big big, in the flat you can start with second gear + big else put small chainring to use first gear.