Singletrack/MTB
Gravel/All-road
Dirt-road Touring
Fat-bike
Pairing a Pinion and a Derailleur: 72 Speeds with 1,445% Range!?
When Surly specced the Pinion-equipped Moonlander with a chain and left the derailleur hanger in place, it felt like they were daring someone to slap on a derailleur and cassette to see how it’d work with a Pinion and derailleur drivetrain together. So, we did just that. In this video, Neil shares what he found after experimenting with a few different configurations…
Many of you caught my review of the new Surly Moonlander—the completely redesigned version of their fat bike originally launched in 2011. Since Surly curiously outfitted the Pinion-specific frame with a derailleur hanger, and they specced it with a chain instead of a belt, it got me thinking: why not add a derailleur and cassette to the bike? It could complement the already wide 568% range of the nine-speed Pinion and give us smaller jumps between gears. Curiosity got the better of me, so that’s exactly what I did in this experiment. Watch the video below, and read on for details.
The plan was to start by testing a 10-speed system. I visited my local bike consignment shop, found an inexpensive derailleur and shifter, and ordered a budget-friendly 10-speed cassette for the experiment. I also needed a longer chain, so they sold me a discounted pre-cut one, plus a full-size 10-speed chain since the stock chain is 12-speed. In total, I spent about $115—not the cheapest, but I can always re-consign the parts.
There were a few things to note before I got started. First, I knew the chainline might be an issue, with the potential for tire rub when the cassette is in the lowest gear (the largest and most inboard cog). I stuck with the 34-tooth chainring on the crankset. Second, since the Moonlander doesn’t come with any cable guides for a rear derailleur, I had to improvise. Lastly, while adding another cable to an already crowded cockpit isn’t ideal, what’s one more, right?
Installation
The installation went smoothly overall, but I ran into a clearance issue with the Shimano 10-speed shifter slightly interfering with the Pinion shifter. To resolve this, I repositioned the Pinion shifter above the brake lever, allowing the Shimano trigger to release properly. It might be worth trying a different brand of shifter or even switching to a grip shifter on the left side to free up space on the already crowded right side of the bars.
For cable routing, I used the guides on the left side of the downtube, which worked perfectly. I then routed the cable and housing through the yoke, securing it to the chainstay with zip ties. I started with about 76 inches of housing but trimmed it down to 72 inches. A standard cable worked fine with room to spare on this medium Moonlander.
The derailleur threaded into the hanger without issue, and I installed the cassette using a small 1.5mm spacer on the freehub body to accommodate the 10-speed setup. For the chain, I used a full 114-link 10-speed chain and added 14 more links from another chain, bringing the total to 128 links. Alternatively, you could opt for a longer chain like SRAM’s 144-link version, or other longer 10-speed options. For reference, I mounted the wheel all the way forward in the dropout during this experiment.
Results
Once everything was installed, as expected, I immediately noticed the chain rubbing against the massive 6.2” Molinda tires when in the 36T and 32T cogs. However, once I dropped it down to the 28T cog, the rubbing stopped, except for a few random instances. To address this, I adjusted the low-gear limit screw all the way in, preventing shifts into the 32T and 36T cogs. Unfortunately, this sacrificed some low-end gearing, but I was able to run the 11T through 28T cogs successfully. So, I’d call this a 9×8 setup. Paired with the nine-speed Pinion, the result is an impressive total gear range of 1,445%.
On the low end, I achieved 20.5 gear inches with these large wheels, compared to the original 16.9 gear inches with the 34×34 Pinion driver. But what really stands out is the 296 gear inches on the high end, which, frankly, is overkill for most situations. It’s hard to fully grasp this range without seeing it in action, so I took it for a spin on flat ground to demonstrate. The potential speed is incredible, but with the 36T cog off-limits, I lost some climbing capability, which isn’t ideal.
While an eight-speed cassette sounds promising in theory, I encountered the same issue with the first two low gears rubbing against the tire, since the cassette spacing is similar to a 10-speed. This led me to consider trying a seven-speed cassette instead. I visited another bike shop in town, where they let me use a junkyard seven-speed for the experiment. Even with about 6.5mm of spacers on the freehub body, the largest cog still rubbed the tire. I was hopeful since there are some wide-range 13-42T seven-speed cassettes available, but despite tinkering with the limit screws, I couldn’t get it to work properly.
In the end, I found that my original setup was the best option, even though it doesn’t offer much improvement on the climbing side. What I appreciated most was the smaller jumps between gears, allowing me to fine-tune my cadence once I was in a specific Pinion gear. I was even able to shift under load. If I wanted to improve my low-end gearing, I could always switch to a smaller chainring, but that could be done regardless of the derailleur setup. It’s worth noting that if you’re running 26” or 27.5” fat bike wheels—or even 29+ wheels—you’d likely have better luck using the other gears on a 10-speed cassette or a seven-speed setup.
Although this experiment didn’t go exactly as planned, it was still a fun process. Thanks for following along, and if you have any unique or creative gearing setup ideas, let me know in the conversation below!
Further Reading
Make sure to dig into these related articles for more info...
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