Wolf Tooth Tanpan
Shift twice…
The shortage of parts with the pandemic got us to be more creative to have our bike season going forward. My new sponsor Panorama Cycles provided me with a bike frame and as part of our deal, I had no drivetrain components provided with the bike. I had an old Shimano 2x11 “road” groupset laying around and recently found an SLX MTB rear derailleur with a clutch so I could use it as a one-by (1x) drivetrain with a big mountain bike style cassette up to a 50 tooth cog. The reason why I like the 50t cassette is that it is smoother to spin the cranks on technical terrain and steep climbs, plus you don’t have to walk your bike on climbs with a heavy load when bikepacking. To make the road shifters work with the MTB rear derailleur, an adaptation of the cable pull ratio is necessary so that the small pull from the shifter, makes a big pull on the MTB derailleur.
Wolf Tooth advertises the Tanpan as the perfect solution to make this conversion of pull ratios and it is easier to get than the JTEK Shiftmate here in North America. I have installed a Garbaruk cage to make sure the derailleur gets to the 50T cog and also to fit big pulley wheels for optimal drivetrain efficiency. I was really enthusiastic to get the bike rolling, here’s how my Tanpan experience went.
Installation
Instructions to install the Tanpan inline (with the outer cable line), closer to the shifters, are provided on the Wolf Tooth website. However, the instructions are very hard to follow and lack pictures to explain. I followed the instructions provided by someone else on Youtube and it was much easier to understand. What Wolf Tooth and the video does not say, is that Wolf Tooth has provided some guidelines written on the Tanpan to adjust the proper cable position for shifting with the correct ratio. There is an “L” marking for the biggest cog - lower gear, and an “H” marking for the highest gear.
To start you need to align the “H” with the cable entry port (goat logo). Then feed the cable in the goat hole and then in the hole next to the tiny philips screw. Finally feed the cable in the “wolf” exit port that will go towards the rear derailleur. Make sure to have plenty of slack cable to avoid kinks as you re-align the “H” with the “goat” entry port and adjust cable tension around the pulleys of the Tanpan.
How to feed the cable in the Tanpan
Tanpan installed close to the shifters, inline with the cables
If you end up with the cable past the “H” on the Tanpan in the highest gear position on the derailleur when you shift as shown in the picture on the left, the derailleur may not shift well as the pull ratio may not be optimal and the cable may get stuck in the screw as the pulley moves. Re-adjust the pulley position by sliding the cable in the screw hole to align the H limits with the cable if that is the case.
Tanpan with the cable positioned on the “L” line
The cable should be located between the two lines next to “H” when in the highest gear and on or between the two lines next to “L” when in the lowest (biggest cog) gear, as shown on the right.
G-ROAD test
Katahdin from Panorama cycles in front of Seljalandsfoss - Iceland
After some tests on gravel roads, I found the shifting with the Tanpan installed inline was sloppy and the lever was hard to push. I have tried to adjust the Tanpan several times, changing (and wasting) 3x Brand New Jagwire Pro Slick cables in the process. Every time, the pinch screw and the pulley would bend the cable making it unusable… I knew bikepacking.com mentioned having a very similar setup to mine with the Tanpan working with the SLX rear derailleur. So there had to be a way to make it work.
After weeks of despair and wasted hours, I went to see Andreas Ihm at Pignon sur roues for his advice. He confirmed what I thought, the Tanpan probably just works at the derailleur position, not inline near the shifters. This makes the installation of the Tanpan more difficult and more subject to be hit by a rock and exposed to sand/dirt. Plus, with modern gravel bike frames, there is almost no space to fit the Tanpan between the MTB derailleur and the frame cable exit.
Wolf Tooth Tanpan at derailleur position
Katahdin from Panorama cycles with the inline barrel adjuster replacing the Tanpan that was inline
Final installation and Adjustments
Final setup with the Tanpan (XT derailleur clutch exposed)
The Tanpan did not fit straight between the derailleur and my chainstay cable exit, unfortunately. So I had to be creative by removing the cable barrel adjuster from the Tanpan and fitting an inline barrel adjuster near the shifters, and fitting a really small piece of cable between the Tanpan entry and the chainstay cable exit. After some tweaking, it finally worked! I could shift to all gears, high to low, without major problems and the shifting is so much smoother than the inline method suggested by Wolf Tooth.
However, after a few hundred of kilometers I saw the cable was really subject to kinks. I then added a Goatlink to have more space and I modified the outer cable after changing the cable for the 10th time (barely exaggerating here, it cost me over 100$CAD in cables)… The cable was less kinked and I could fit the barrel adjuster to hold the outer cable, but then I had no room to remove the rear wheel without breaking the outer cable! What a nightmare!
UPDATE 20-04-2023 : After using the GRX rear derailleur with the Goatlink for a few weeks I realized that it was still not shifting up to my standards. So I finally went back with a GRX812 with a Garbaruk cage and removed the Goatlink. This setup offers the most precise shifting in my experience. I have tested this setup for several weeks now with no issues!
After several hours of frustration working on the derailleur to shift properly, I finally gave up the option to use an MTB derailleur which was appealing at first, but ended up wasting precious time with people I love! I have finally settled on the GRX RD-RX812 option with a Wolf Tooth Goatlink 11 for now (waiting for the Garbaruk Cage) to shift in the big 50T cog.
Conclusion
I was really enthusiastic at first with the Tanpan inline setup, but my dream turned into a nightmare. I would not suggest doing a 1x conversion with the Wolftooth Tanpan unless it is all you can do to ride your bike. I have heard more success with Di2 MTB derailleur 1x conversions as you don’t have cable pull ratio issues and therefore do not need a Tanpan. I also have another gravel bike with a SRAM FORCE 1 one-by conversion that was much easier to do and could accommodate a 50T as well with the Garbaruk cage. Going with the Shimano GRX RD-RX812 works for now on the Katahdin from Panorama cycles and I’ll see if I run into issues. If you are going with Shimano 1x mechanical groupset, this is the only reliable derailleur that will get you into the granny gear on a modern gravel (road style shifter) bike.
Updated Katahdin from Panorama Cycles setup with GRX812 rear derailleur and Garbaruk cage offering the best shifting performance with cassettes up to 50T
