As you know it’s very hard to get any modern bar end shifters right now. Unfortunately I love them. I have an opportunity to buy Microshift BS-M10 shifters which are meant for 10 speed shimano drivetrains.
Is there enough pull in BS-M10 friction mode, to work with 11 speed derailleur?
This is according Shimano derailleurs only for now and the values are estimated.
MTB 10s pull ratio is 1.2 - which is most likely pull ratio of BS-M10 Microshift shifter. The total length of a pull should be around: 3.4*10=34mm
ROAD 11s (including GRX, as it's compatible with road groups) pull ratio is 1.4 and the cable pull is 2.7*11=29.7
MTB 11s pull ratio is 1.1, and the cable pull is 3.6*11=39.6
CUES 9,10,11 pull ratio is most likely around 1.0, the cable pull is around 3.7*11=40.7
I didn't test it yet, but most likely 10s mtb friction shifter will work with 11s road derailleur. The thing is sometimes, on highest gears shifters pulls more of a cable, the question is if difference between 34-29.7=4.3mm is enough to cover it.
In the end it doesn't makes much sense because the biggest cassette 11-s GRX/road can work with is 40T. To make it work with bigger cog conversion kit is needed. It means that it's probably worth more to use it with 11-42 shimano mtb cassette from economical or reliability reason.
Ref.
Most likely not. 11 speed rear derailleurs have a different pull ratio. Your best bet is to choose a "road" derailleur up to 10 speeds, or a "MTB" derailleur up to 9 speeds.
Also a factor is that if you plan to use 11 speed cassettes, the total width of the sprockets is a bit wider. For "MTB" cassettes the largest sprocket slightly overhangs the hub flange. For "road" cassettes where the largest sprocket is not large enough to do that, more room was made in the freehub for 11-speed cassettes.
Note for friction shifting in 11-speed systems, you don't need a 11-speed rear derailleur. You can use any rear derailleur as the pull ratio just has to cover everything from largest sprocket to smallest sprocket, it doesn't have to be compatible with indexing.
Also a mystery to me is why would anyone who favors bar-end shifters use 11-speed systems. For economy or durability reasons, 8 speed wins, 9 speed comes second, 10 speed comes third and 11-and-anything-more speed loses. Usually the reason for using bar-end shifters is either their lower purchase price (but the gap between bar-end and STI has narrowed due to bar-end becoming more-and-more expensive), or their far better durability.
