I bought a 2017 Cannondale SuperX for Colorado Gravel racing but it came with the usual 40T SpiderRing, 11-32 cassette and a SRAM Force Type 2.1 Medium Cage rear derailleur. I want to run an 11-42 out back and am looking for the least expensive way to make this work. Some people say you can just get a longer B-screw and max it out so the upper pulley on the medium cage mech will clear. Others say that won't work and you need a long cage rear mech. If I do go with a new rear derailleur, are there less expensive options than a Force Type 2.1 Long? What about a SRAM GX long cage (for MTB's). On my old CX bike I switched out an "Exact Acuation" short cage SRAM Rival for an exact acuation SRAM GX long and it worked perfectly (despite one mechanic saying that wouldn't work). But with this 2.1 and 3.0 designations, I'm confused about compatibility. Thanks!
Using the medium cage might work, but it’s not going to work well on the extremes of the casssette. You can use any SRAM road derailleur or a 10 speed SRAM mountain derailleur. The 11 speed mountain derailleurs use a different ratio and won’t work. The cheapest option is to use an Apex 1 derailleur. Another option is to find a Rival or Force long cage and swap it in your derailleur. I swapped a long cage Rival cage onto my Force derailleur so I know this works. For all the info you could ever want check out this page:
ljsmith wrote:Using the medium cage might work, but it’s not going to work well on the extremes of the casssette. You can use any SRAM road derailleur or a 10 speed SRAM mountain derailleur. The 11 speed mountain derailleurs use a different ratio and won’t work. The cheapest option is to use an Apex 1 derailleur. Another option is to find a Rival or Force long cage and swap it in your derailleur. I swapped a long cage Rival cage onto my Force derailleur so I know this works. For all the info you could ever want check out this page:
Thanks for sharing this. I was always curious if you could swap out the cage assembly from a short/medium cage Rival 1 or Force 1 and replace it with a long cage assembly. It seems there a lot of of these long cage assembly kits for sale on eBay but they are only selling the outer cage and not the entire cage assembly. Is it possible to purchase an entire SRAM Rival 1/Force 1 cage assembly to upgrade the rear derailleur?
denyski, HA Ha, I just stumbled on that page yesterday - randomly! Thanks. Right now it's looking like I just need to buy a Rival long cage derailleur and try to get whatever $$ I can for my used Force Medium cage.
I like this for the simplicity of the hack. A clip and a screw and bam your new 12 spd derailleur is an 11 spd Mullet. Those large cassettes are pricey and heavy.
