1X11? Late April fools?

[Scotty]

Scotty, great work ignoring the link and spewing .

I read the article dumb *beep*

[iamkickstand]

lol the "weight" on the rear.

I would love to take this 11 speed casette and a 10 speed cassette, and an 8 speed cassette and mount it on ANY of your bikes, blindfold you, hand you your bike and see if you can tell me which cassette is on the back

lol

the weight

lol

[Scotty]

I think Scotty's point is they say it's "to help our athletes win races", but I also question if racers need the low gear and want the weight on the rear wheel...

that is one of my points. I know a lot of pros and I've never heard any of them say "I wish I had a 10x42 drivetrain. Pros ride what their sponsors tell them to ride. And they'll all say in public that they like those components. There are a handful who give technical feedback to companies like SRAM for product development and design. But the majority of pros take what they can get. That's why you see 5'1" pro women racing on 29ers that are obviously too tall for them, or why 10 years ago so many pro XC racers were on Full Sus bikes. It's what the bike companies were marketing.

But, I've seen pros jerry rig some crazy stuff on their race bikes over the years to avoid excess weight. Like putting their wheel sponsor's logos on lighter non sponsor wheels. Machining or drilling out components to save weight. I know one pro woman who weighs her shorts and has them altered to drop weight. I remember people running sealant and ditching tubes (back when nobody was doing it outside of racing and it was mostly homebrew). I've known people who ran Road cassettes and rear deraileurs. But putting that large a cassette on their wheel seems crazy. Many of them running 1x10 drivetrains today don't even bother with the 36 tooth cassette (because of weight). It's more gear than they need.

[Scotty]

lol the "weight" on the rear.

I would love to take this 11 speed casette and a 10 speed cassette, and an 8 speed cassette and mount it on ANY of your bikes, blindfold you, hand you your bike and see if you can tell me which cassette is on the back

lol

the weight

lol

I could tell the difference. The 8 speed with thumbies will shift better.

[AirGuitar29]

I don't like the trend towards increasingly large cogs in the back. Does anyone else not like adding weight skewed all the way to the rear of the bike like that?

Not at all. I recently switched from an 11=36 XX cassette rated around 208 grams to an 11-36 XT cassette rated somewhere around 337 grams and noticed absolutely no difference in weight while riding. I did, however, notice a MUCH better value with the XT cassette. Also, when paired with a KMC 10 speed chain, I think that it shifts better than the XX cassette.

[Scotty]

As skeptical as I am of this, I'd still like to try one out. Personally I'd me more impressed if they can make a chainring that doesn't require a guide (and doesn't allow the chain to drop). I've tried every guide available and none of them works as well as an outer chain ring guide and an inner stop mounted on the seat tube. It would be nice to be able to ditch all that.

[Paul Brown]

As skeptical as I am of this, I'd still like to try one out. Personally I'd me more impressed if they can make a chainring that doesn't require a guide (and doesn't allow the chain to drop). I've tried every guide available and none of them works as well as an outer chain ring guide and an inner stop mounted on the seat tube. It would be nice to be able to ditch all that.

Has anybody tried the 2012 XTR rd (with the lock feature) in a 1x?? application? The first thing I thought when I saw one locked in place was "no more chain guide req'd."

[iamkickstand]

[

I could tell the difference. The 8 speed with thumbies will shift better.

I didn't say ride it and be able to tell which one shifts best and works best

I said tell that it weighs more or has changed the "balance" of your bike.

I went from a Rock Shox Domain to a fox 40 on my DH bike.

I would have to weigh the "exact" components I also changed (stem and bars, spacers, etc)

Rock shox domain 318 6.29 ish pounds
Fox 40 7.15ish pounds (i thought it was heavier than that)

And I honestly can not really feel a difference in the way my bike rides from a weight bias perspective. I feel the difference in suspsension performance and the added 20mm of travel, but I don't feel the weight.

weight weenies lol

[giantone]

As skeptical as I am of this, I'd still like to try one out. Personally I'd me more impressed if they can make a chainring that doesn't require a guide (and doesn't allow the chain to drop). I've tried every guide available and none of them works as well as an outer chain ring guide and an inner stop mounted on the seat tube. It would be nice to be able to ditch all that.

Has anybody tried the 2012 XTR rd (with the lock feature) in a 1x?? application? The first thing I thought when I saw one locked in place was "no more chain guide req'd."

haven't tried the shadowplus XTR rd. i hear the 2013 SLX, saint, and zee will also have that tech so entry to that tech will be lower ($$).

[Paul Brown]

As skeptical as I am of this, I'd still like to try one out. Personally I'd me more impressed if they can make a chainring that doesn't require a guide (and doesn't allow the chain to drop). I've tried every guide available and none of them works as well as an outer chain ring guide and an inner stop mounted on the seat tube. It would be nice to be able to ditch all that.

Has anybody tried the 2012 XTR rd (with the lock feature) in a 1x?? application? The first thing I thought when I saw one locked in place was "no more chain guide req'd."

haven't tried the shadowplus XTR rd. i hear the 2013 SLX, saint, and zee will also have that tech so entry to that tech will be lower ($$).

After trying to push the rd forward from the bottom and asking the users about it, it seems that the complete lack of chain slack would make for an ideal 1 x ?? setup. Somebody out there has tried it by now I would think. Do you know if that feature comes in a short cage?

[iamkickstand]

As skeptical as I am of this, I'd still like to try one out. Personally I'd me more impressed if they can make a chainring that doesn't require a guide (and doesn't allow the chain to drop). I've tried every guide available and none of them works as well as an outer chain ring guide and an inner stop mounted on the seat tube. It would be nice to be able to ditch all that.

Has anybody tried the 2012 XTR rd (with the lock feature) in a 1x?? application? The first thing I thought when I saw one locked in place was "no more chain guide req'd."

haven't tried the shadowplus XTR rd. i hear the 2013 SLX, saint, and zee will also have that tech so entry to that tech will be lower ($$).

After trying to push the rd forward from the bottom and asking the users about it, it seems that the complete lack of chain slack would make for an ideal 1 x ?? setup. Somebody out there has tried it by now I would think. Do you know if that feature comes in a short cage?

It looks like it is only available in medium and long. But the Saint and Zee lines from shimano have the same "feature" and are both available in a short cage.

[mtbfree]

As skeptical as I am of this, I'd still like to try one out. Personally I'd me more impressed if they can make a chainring that doesn't require a guide (and doesn't allow the chain to drop). I've tried every guide available and none of them works as well as an outer chain ring guide and an inner stop mounted on the seat tube. It would be nice to be able to ditch all that.

Has anybody tried the 2012 XTR rd (with the lock feature) in a 1x?? application? The first thing I thought when I saw one locked in place was "no more chain guide req'd."

While this might work for paved/dirt road riding and some smooth trails, I wouldn't count on it working anywhere near as well as a chainguide. The shadow plus applies more tension to the chain, but it is nowhere near being "locked" in place... it merely has an internal clutch to keep it from swinging forward as quickly or as far. Chances are it will still drop chains frequently on rock gardens, roots or that bombed out section of trail leading into a corner at the bottom of a hill.

[Paul Brown]

As skeptical as I am of this, I'd still like to try one out. Personally I'd me more impressed if they can make a chainring that doesn't require a guide (and doesn't allow the chain to drop). I've tried every guide available and none of them works as well as an outer chain ring guide and an inner stop mounted on the seat tube. It would be nice to be able to ditch all that.

Has anybody tried the 2012 XTR rd (with the lock feature) in a 1x?? application? The first thing I thought when I saw one locked in place was "no more chain guide req'd."

While this might work for paved/dirt road riding and some smooth trails, I wouldn't count on it working anywhere near as well as a chainguide. The shadow plus applies more tension to the chain, but it is nowhere near being "locked" in place... it merely has an internal clutch to keep it from swinging forward as quickly or as far. Chances are it will still drop chains frequently on rock gardens, roots or that bombed out section of trail leading into a corner at the bottom of a hill.

If it moves at all I agree.
The XTR I tried to push forward is a positive lock (100%), in other words it did not move at all.

[mtbfree]

As skeptical as I am of this, I'd still like to try one out. Personally I'd me more impressed if they can make a chainring that doesn't require a guide (and doesn't allow the chain to drop). I've tried every guide available and none of them works as well as an outer chain ring guide and an inner stop mounted on the seat tube. It would be nice to be able to ditch all that.

Has anybody tried the 2012 XTR rd (with the lock feature) in a 1x?? application? The first thing I thought when I saw one locked in place was "no more chain guide req'd."

While this might work for paved/dirt road riding and some smooth trails, I wouldn't count on it working anywhere near as well as a chainguide. The shadow plus applies more tension to the chain, but it is nowhere near being "locked" in place... it merely has an internal clutch to keep it from swinging forward as quickly or as far. Chances are it will still drop chains frequently on rock gardens, roots or that bombed out section of trail leading into a corner at the bottom of a hill.

If it moves at all I agree.
The XTR I tried to push forward is a positive lock (100%), in other words it did not move at all.

Hmm... i know the clutch is adjustable (you can open up the mechanism and tighten/loosen the contact) so maybe the one you tried was tightened down? There needs to be some movement to accommodate chain growth on full suspension bikes as they cycle through their travel, otherwise the suspension would lock up (or more likely, the chain or derailleur would snap).

[mmba7614]

I assume that there is still an issue with chain line, and the chain popping off from the top while pedaling? I assume this is what SRAM is trying to conquer with the crazy tooth profiles... I guess it becomes that much more important to replace worn chain rings in this case?