Sensah SRX Pro and 11 speed XD cassette = incompatible??

I am having a problem that I have been looking for a solution for days now but I can not find what the problem is...

I am building a Carbonda 696 gravel bike with the Sensah SRX Pro 11 speed groupset. I have built wheels with Novatec hubs with XD body and put a 9-42 XD cassette on it. 
I simply can not get the bike to shift correct. The travel of de derailleur is not big enough. I can either get the highest +- 8 gears to shift correct, but then het lowest 3 are very bad or vise versa. Yesterday I put an old MTB wheel with a Shimano HG 11-46 cassette in it to test and it worked without problems!

I have checked hanger alignment with the proper tool and minimized cable friction. All are OK. 

Is the 11 speed XD cassette maybe not compatible with the road shifters and am I stuck with HG cassettes? (this would mean new body's for 2 wheels and new cassette )

OK, after a couple more hours of testing I think I might have found the problem... I measured both cassettes and they seem to have the same distance between cogs, so that could not be it (I was afraid the XD cassette might be wider i total with more space between cogs). Since the MTB wheel with the HG cassette did work there must have been another difference... So I measured the distance between the first sprocket and the end of the axle. On the MTB wheel this was almost 2mm more. So the (horizontal) distance between derailleur and the cassette was 2mm wider in the working setup... So i put a washer between the derailleur bolt and the frame and... It works a lot better now! I can get all the gears although it does not go to the smallest cog very well, but it gets there after a while 🙂 

I am having a similar problem installing Sensah on my custom Waltly. LBS says it's a Sensah issue and that Shimano SRAM etc won't have this problem, so instead of sending the hanger back to Waltly for a regrind, I've decided to use the washer. Bike is still at the shop, I haven't ridden it yet.

TidyDinosaur wrote:OK, after a couple more hours of testing I think I might have found the problem... I measured both cassettes and they seem to have the same distance between cogs, so that could not be it (I was afraid the XD cassette might be wider i total with more space between cogs). Since the MTB wheel with the HG cassette did work there must have been another difference... So I measured the distance between the first sprocket and the end of the axle. On the MTB wheel this was almost 2mm more. So the (horizontal) distance between derailleur and the cassette was 2mm wider in the working setup... So i put a washer between the derailleur bolt and the frame and... It works a lot better now! I can get all the gears although it does not go to the smallest cog very well, but it gets there after a while 🙂 

I have a couple of thoughts.  First Shimano and SRAM have slightly different cog spacing.  So if your Sensa system was made for Shimano it’s not going to shift an XD cassette perfectly.  Second, is your driver an XD or an XDR?  If it’s a road hub it is likely XDR.  To put a 9-42 cassette on an XDR hub you need a 1.8mm spacer behind the cassette.  

ljsmith wrote:


I have a couple of thoughts.  First Shimano and SRAM have slightly different cog spacing.  So if your Sensa system was made for Shimano it’s not going to shift an XD cassette perfectly.  Second, is your driver an XD or an XDR?  If it’s a road hub it is likely XDR.  To put a 9-42 cassette on an XDR hub you need a 1.8mm spacer behind the cassette.  

I was indeed also thinking about a different cog spacing, but when I searched the internet for an answer, I could only find signs that pointed to the cassettes of the 2 brands being interchangeable. I also measured (as good as I could) the 2 cassettes and the spacing does indeed seem to be identical.

I do have an XD body. Built the wheels myself and ordered the hubs myself. I didn't even know there was an XDR body before 

Well, it has been a while, but I wanted to update this because maybe there is somebody with the same issue...

I have been experimenting with thin washers between the derailleur and the frame to get the derailleur to come about 2mm more to the outside. This worked a little better until someone who had seen my solution used a nylon washer of 2mm. This seems to do the trick. I have since also put a nylon washer between frame and derailleur and it is now shifting more or less OK.