Gx axs rear mech on 11sp

[Bennyb]

Seen a few videos on YouTube, but anyone on here got real world experience of fitting a wireless mech (12 speed) on a 11sp cassette . Don’t what the hassle of swapping everything over and it’s cheaper for 11sp replacements .

 

[Dave_B]

I think @Kiwi in Wales has done this…..

 

[Kiwi in Wales]

Yes, I did it with Dave’s GX AXS derailleur that he sold me for an absolute bargain price. Thanks very much Dave

Why SRAM have chosen not to do 11 speed AXS is beyond me………… which is the main reason why I gave up waiting and tried what I did below.

It seems to work okay, I did the set up about 2 weeks ago on my 2019 Levo. No issues so far but still early days yet before I can confirm anything regarding missed shifts, any premature wear or longevity
I set it up with a GX AXS shifter I got from R2-bike.com (great, very reasonably priced online store!) and used my existing E13 9-46 TRS cassette

What I did was set the limit screw on the derailleur to line up and stop at the 46 tooth sprocket on the cassette to prevent the derailleur possibly shifting up to what would be the 50 or 52 tooth sprocket or gear number 1 on a 12 speed and shifting into the spokes of the rear wheel . Not sure if I needed to do this but thought why risk it?

After setting it up like this I found if you accidentally push the shifter button to shift up to what should be gear 1 (50 or 52 tooth sprocket on a 12 speed) the derailleur will ghost shift and stay on the 46 tooth sprocket which would be gear 2 on a 12 speed but is gear 1 on the 11 speed cassette.

However, if you have done this ghost shift and you want to change to the next lower gear which would be gear 3 on the 12 speed but gear 2 on the 11 speed cassette you will need to push the shifter button twice. Once, to ghost shift, the ghost shift so it thinks it is back on the 46 tooth which is gear 2 on the 12 speed but gear 1 on the 11 speed as it never moved due to the ghost shift and then push the shifter button again to drop it on to next sprocket which is gear 3 on the 12 speed but gear 2 on the 11 speed cassette which is the 39 tooth sprocket on my E13 cassette.
Sorry if all the above sounds confusing……

I think the above ‘con’ is something I am more than happy to put up with as the resulting ‘pro’ is I can stay on 11 speed and I have 11 speed electronic shifting with a double shift required if I forget what gear I am in when shifting from the biggest to second biggest sprocket on the cassette.

As I said above, it is still early days but seems to be working fine for me.

Will it work on your 11 speed set up?
I guess so but that is for you to consider and you to decide if the above is workable for you