In the pursuit of meddling with a lot of well developed and perfectly good gearing systems and components for no good reason other than I want to I'm wondering about mini cassettes and what not.

I have a singlespeed wheel which I'm trying to get used to riding, but its pretty good so far. It's not however something that I would want to use for touring or long distance events.

I was wondering if anyone has any experience or knowlege of bodging 9 or 10 speed cassettes onto SS mini cassette hubs? I'm thinking that a Paul's thumbie mount / bar end shifter and a road mech with part of a cassette, maybe a road one to keep it light and sleek.

I think Jeff Jones did a modified shimano 9 speed cassette once, turning it into a 6 speed affair. Ideally I'd be trying to do something with easily available bits rather than a part machined by Jeff in the states everytime you wanted to change it.

Before I get my measuring hat on, Anyone know anything?

I've made my own cut cassettes, got a box of part-cassettes and adapt them as needed. Either a mix of Shimano and SS sprockets or just file/face the back of an XT 12-32 carrier and use with a couple of smaller single sprockets. I've used the 17-34 section of an XT straight onto a Hope SS hub, no mods. There's some long but useful threads on MTBR on this sort of bodgery.
I found 6 fit easier than 7 and the range counts for a lot more than the actual number of gears.

I've done 4 speed on a WTB Single Duty hub:

4 speed by cnarborough, on Flickr

Used a 12-27 9 speed road cassette that was riveted together - drill out the rivets, kept the 14, 17, 21 and 27 T cogs, riveted them back together with the spacers in between and held the lot on the hub with a BB lockring. Could possibly have used a fixed cog to hold the short cassette on, if I'd been able to grind it down to the right thickness to maintain the indexing. Used with both XT long cage and Ultegra short cage rear mechs and 9 speed bar end shifter on a Paul Thumbie mount.

Unfortunately the freehub body is aluminium and the cassette chewed into the splines. I also found that the range was ok, but limited - I'd probably have been better off with a triple front chainset to give a wider spread. Also tried a dinglespeed setup for loaded bikepacking (32/34 up front, 20/18 out back) and that was too much faff to swap gears.

Eventually went back to singlespeed and put up with walking. 8-)

Like James says. Most cassettes are broken down into their individual cogs, so you should be able to use which ever combinations you like, with the help of a hacksaw.

I'm assuming a derailleur can only shift between a certain cog sizes (so no 11t to 32t shifts) so you may have to pick your range carefully and as long as you're tidy with the hacksaw you should be able to use a standard indexed shifter.

very nice bodgery there guys.

I fancied making it from 10speed parts as I have a mech and a couple of cassettes I can butcher. The only thing I'm missing is a thumbie, though I have a standard XT 10 speed shifter.

I'm not worried about the fact that its clearly more limited than a proper gear set up with regard to range. Its as much for the sake of fiddling with it over winter as anything

I have an XT 32-11 9spd on a Hope Evo on my bike, went straight on with no mods. Main cassette body(5) then the 6th and lockring.
For shifting I have a Suntour thumbie from Velovitality, £20! I basically ride my bike as a SS, just happens to have a little more range, so the shifting is plenty good enough for me, if you are looking for a trigger replacement it may not work for you tho'
Been toying with the idea of doing what James has done to customise the range etc, something I hadn't accounted for is the fact that the 32t cog is where the 4th gear would be, so it can make it a bit of a stretch for the mech at times. Never had a bad shift but occasionally it "clunks" a little.

Cheers Gari. I havnt had much of a play at it yet just a fish around in the parts box.

I'll see how it goes at the weekend

Had a brief faff.

The ultegra cassette I have fitted on as a 6 speed but had a little space at the end, I can fill that with a hope SS spacer. It's a decent ratio at 15-28. MTb mech looks like it will work, might need a longer limit screw.

I might get a fat/thin chainring but need to look at ratios and pick one, and I need a new chain as the one I have is badly streatched.

I'll stay SS for a bit I think but will get round to a go at this properly