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11-Speed Road Bike Hubs Versus 10-Speed – Tech Breakdown

DT Swiss Shimano 11-speed hub diagram comparing to 10 speed road bike hubs
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DT Swiss Shimano 11-speed hub diagram comparing to 10 speed road bike hubs

Thanks to one of our inside sources, we scored this outline of DT Swiss’ new 11-speed road hubs. If you recall, all of their 2013 road bike hubs will be 11-speed, and there are rumors swirling that Shimano and SRAM will offer an extra cog soon.

This diagram specifically calls out Shimano, which means it’ll fit SRAM, too. Top half is the new 11-speed, bottom half shows current 10-speed for their 240 rear hub. The important numbers here are:

  • Spoke Flange Spacing doesn’t change -50mm on both hubs- so no theoretical reduction of triangulation. The angles may change, which wouldn’t play in favor of the drive side, but that can be fixed relatively easily with offset spoke drillings on rims. Or just having the rim sit 1mm further to the left inside the frame.
  • Freehub Body Width only grows 1.8mm. If you consider that Mavic’s current FTS-L freehub road wheels are 37mm wide and require their 2mm spacer to work with Shimano/SRAM cassettes, they shouldn’t need any adaptation to work with 11-speed offerings from either brand.
  • Total Hub Width only grows by 1mm. This puts the hub at 131mm wide, which will fit into a standard 130mm spaced road frame with no problem and likely cause no alignment issues.

Some of the other numbers indicate the smallest cog may sit about 1mm to 2mm closer to the dropout, meaning some current gen frames might have clearance issues. We suspect it’ll be a very, very limited problem.

What all this does mean is that the chain is almost certainly going to be narrower, as will the space between cogs.

Looking forward, it’ll be interesting to see how they fit disc brake rotor mounts on here. As if it weren’t already pretty much a done deal, this all but seals the deal for 135mm rear spacing when discs take over the world.

DT Swiss Shimano 11-speed hub diagram comparing to 10 speed road bike hubs

The unadulterated graphic.

Campagnolo 11-speed chain and cassette width compared to SRAM Red 10-speed

Just for fun, here’s the visual difference between Campagnolo’s Super Record 11-speed (left) and the new SRAM Red 10-speed (right). Looks like about 1.2mm difference between cogs.

Campagnolo 11-speed chain and cassette width compared to SRAM Red 10-speed

Oddly, chain width isn’t much different at all. Granted, this isn’t a high tech piece of measuring equipment, but you can see a bit more space between the next-to-top cog and the chain’s outer plate. (Campy on left)

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19 Comments
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Chris
Chris
12 years ago

I like hearing that Mavic hubs may very well not need any real changes to adapt to 11-speed Shim/SRAM. Not that I plan on upgrading any time soon..

Your Drivetrain
Your Drivetrain
12 years ago

Clean me please! I hate being covered in road grime.

John
John
12 years ago

Odd, how come campy needed no such widen of the free hub body?

Joe
Joe
12 years ago

Will an 11-speed freehub body fit on a hub that has a 10-speed freehub or will everyone have to buy new wheels and hubs?

John Allen
2 years ago
Reply to  Joe

No except maybe the Dura-Ace 7850, whose Freehub body also has 15 internal splines. But i haven’t tried this. See https://sheldonbrown.com/shimano-cassette-bodies.html

Naton
Naton
12 years ago

“Or just having the rim sit 1mm further to the right inside the frame.”

Do you mean the left?

greg
greg
12 years ago

unfortunately, triangulation is reduced. on the left side, it is reduced by 0.6mm. on the right, it increases by the same 0.6mm, making the spoke tension imbalance greater. ideally, the right is as far to the right as possible (in this case 0.6mm to the left of the old one) and the left would move to the right to keep the left spokes tension from being insufficient. it looks as if dt tried really hard to reuse their hub shells.

Brandon
Brandon
12 years ago

Paint me a fan of 135mm spacing if we’re moving toward more cogs and wider freehub bodies. As if DS and NDS spoke angles weren’t far enough off, they’re just getting worse. Granted, it’s a small change, but I’ll take discs and 135mm, please.

TMH
TMH
12 years ago

I guess the days of a nice smooth QUIET Shimano drive-train are coming to an end?

Why is it so cool to cram as many cogs in the back but so un-cool to have 3 rings up front?

Rick
Rick
2 years ago
Reply to  TMH

Agreed, the 1X people either; don’t or cant appreciate the close ratio gears possible with 2X or 3X drivetrains.

Alex K
Alex K
12 years ago

If only there was a widely used hub spacing standard just a little bit bigger than 130mm? I guess there isn’t so we’ll have to do 131mm.

HOLY CRAP JUST MOVE TO 135 ALREADY. I will mock and ridicule any tool who buys a hub with 131mm spacing.

(required)
(required)
12 years ago

“Why is it so cool to cram as many cogs in the back but so un-cool to have 3 rings up front?”

You are not allowed to ask why things are “cool” Doing so is itself the height of uncoolness.

MaLóL
MaLóL
12 years ago

get a proper digital micrometer from ebay, costs 7€ only…

Alex
Alex
12 years ago

Reminds me of the change from 7sp (126mm) to 8sp (130mm). The first Dura-Ace 130mm hubs had rounded locknuts so that you could jam the 130mm hub into a 126mm frame. I am sure I wouldn’t notice 1mm extra when pulling the wheel up into the dropouts, but given that Mavic seems to already have a compatible hub @ 130mm spacing, why does DT need to go to 131?? Can’t they just machine the left side locknut 1 mm shorter?

H.A
H.A
12 years ago

Wasn’t it a few years ago Shimano needed to widen up/narrowening the freewheel for 10speed (from 9 speed)?

I use a Campagnolo 10speed system with a Shimano 10speed rear wheel and 10s Shimano cassette. It’s worser than blasphemy, but it works nicely enought for me. I have sometimes erratic gearing in the upper half of the cassette, but it’s not really a problem.
It was meant as a temporary solution, but things came in the way.

Campy haven’t had any problems with 9s to 10s to 11s. Why can’t Shimano do that?
1.6mm is so little that they could resign the locknut 0.5-0.7mm millimeter wider, and the cassete 0.75-1mm narrower, so we wouldn’t have to buy new wheels/hubs, or rebuild old wheels. But why should Shimano make things easier for us? 🙂

BrB
BrB
11 years ago

I just finished doing a test install of a Dura-Ace 11spd cassette onto an old Mavic 9/10spd freehub. see: http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php/890090-Shimano-9000-11spd-hub-lie-Works-fine-on-my-old-9spd-Mavic-Ksyrium-SSL-hub

Ken Haan
11 years ago

Heh guys,

Check out my bike project. I’m improving the dual drive exercise bike I’ve been riding for the past 20 years. I’m running a drive shaft down the right fork tube of a dual crown front fork set up. It looks a allot better getting rid of the chains up front.

If anybody is an engineer, ….I would love to have a planetary gear set up along the drive shaft to shift up to higher gears. Most of the internal shifting hubs down shift for hill climbing. The rotating handles work best with a 5:1 gear ratio for the independent front drive.

I have to attach a bevel gear to the front wheel so I have to cut off most of the housing and attach the gear right snug to the wheel hub to allow room for the bigger gear coming out of the front fork tube, I have the dual crown front fork spaced at 135mm.

It’s a fun project and a great crossfit bicycle!

Ben M
Ben M
8 years ago

So I just bought a DT Swiss 350 rear disc hub (135mm wide). I was told it’s 11 speed, but it doesn’t seem to have the 11 speed road freehub on it. I think they are claiming that it’s 11 speed because 11 speed XTR fits on to any 10 speed hub.

I can buy a separate 11 speed freehub from DT Swiss, but would that work? Doesn’t the hub flange need to move to the center to accommodate the larger freehub?

This is all really confusing. Frustrating that you spend over $200 on a high quality hub and it doesn’t support 11 speed out of the box.

Spike
Spike
7 years ago

How can I get a 11 speed cassette on an equinox wheel that was 10 speed. do I need a new free wheel Body?

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