[Closed] 11 or 12 speed? SRAM or Shimano?

I had to get rid of Sram as you can't go down towards 11t by clicking with your index finger. Can't remember what you have to do with sram but it really did my head in.

I think if you want a big dinner plate cog on your cassette you have to go 12speed. Spares are short in the group for both brands, I think sram family is a bit better matched if you have rockshox etc. Shimano is said to shift better, I generally prefer shimano but do like the sram shifter. Also don’t discount microshift who offer a good alternative to both the big guys.

Go 12, 11 speed kit costs a fortune as well now, i run 1 x 12 and 2 x 11 speed bikes, the whole shortage has meant my 11 speed stuff is a real pain to replace, as the likes of cassettes aren't much cheaper than 12 speed.

If you can get a half decent 12 speed groupset then grab it, i would say quality wise 12 speed deore/slx is better than the 11 speed deore/slx was, not saying it's a huge difference, but they are closer together than previous iterations, including 11 speed.

The other annoyance with 11 speed is that due to wider range cassettes being a rarity before, they're even more rare, and expensive, like the 11-46 XT cassettes, were limited before but could be got for a half decent discount, now unavailable anywhere and mark up is there for whoever has new ones to sell!

I have sram 12 speed gx on my HT and Shimano XT on my FS

Sram shifting is much crisper but the Shimano shifter index/thumb is pretty cool

Perhaps a mix of the two is best 😀

Shimano 12 speed is more reliable than SRAM, and the shifting with a Shimano cassette and chain is far superior. I rode a GX Eagle 52t equipped bike for a while in May and compared to my SLX chain and cassette it felt like a supermarket bike. Really rough shifts. The Shimano chain and cassette shift beautifully and seemingly regardless of how much power you put down.

Shimano 11 speed isn't great. The mechs and shifters are sturdy but the aluminium cogs on the cassettes are basically junk. I'd go Shimano 12 speed definitely.

XO1 on the FS and SLX/XT on the HT here, both 12 speed. Wouldn't be putting 11 on a new bike now unless I had easy access to a load of spares I could have sitting for a few years.

Prefer the Shimano shifter to the SRAM, being able to shift two gears up at a time is the big difference for me. No difference in crispness IMO, that depends on how good your indexing is. Rainbow chain is pimp.

Got over 18 months on the X01 cassette through 3 chains, riding several times a week in all weathers. Just replaced it as it was starting to slip all on a couple of cogs. Replaced jockey wheels earlier this year, clutch is still spot on. The whole setup is EXTREMELY fussy about chain length! Snap chain and you need to put a quick link in, you can't take half a link out and fix with a tool to get you home, think the pins are hollow. The cassette is insanely expensive but a nicely engineered thing.

6 or so months in on the Shimano, its needed more indexing than the SRAM but chain's still well short of .75 wear. Snapped the original XT mech (caught on a thick branch stuck in the ground, bit of a freak incident), it sheared just under the clutch. Other than that so far so good. Being on a steel HT rather than a carbon FS means it probably doesn't get the same level of care as the SRAM.

Cost and availability seem the differences just now. If the SRAM mech gets it, reckon I'll be replacing with a Shimano. Not really looked into inter-compatibility, if it's as easy as 11 speed in that regard I'll be surprised.

12 speed shimano cassette and chain, GX AXS mech and shifter.

11 or 12 speed is fine. I think 12 speed is quite fussy about setup in both Shimano and Sram. I have Shimano xt mech / shifter / cassette on one bike (with stam chain as the Shimano one gets noisy / all skippy in mud), and Sram gx shifter / mech / cassette on the other.

Sram gx Eagle is a lighter crisper shift for me than Xt. The xt mech needs periodically rebuilding otherwise the downshift lever gets really stiff. The gx Eagle isn’t old enough yet to comment on durability.

11 speed deore could be a cheaper option with nearly the same range - you can use an 11-50 Shimano or Sunrace cassette with the m5100 rear mech - and any Shimano 11 speed shifter you can get your hands on.

If you go Sram Eagle - don’t be tempted to go below GX level. SC is junk and NX isn’t that durable.

If you go Shimano I think deore is meant to be fine - maybe slx has a slightly stronger mech cage though.

Ultimately it’s going to come down to what you can find in stock for the bough right now.

Chain wise I’d use Sram as my top choice (I like the bling gold to rainbow eagle chains) or KMC (also gold).

Just one further thought - GX 11 speed was great for me previously - other than the range which was a bit low. I believe Sunrace make a 10-46 cassette that’s compatible with it though - if you could find that it might give you another option with the current parts shortage.

Xt 11-46 is the sweet spot for price, durability, weight and range, in my view. 12 speed is nice, but I'm not sure it's worth the extra money.

Thanks everyone. Think I'll stick with the Shimano plan. And go new 12 speed unless I spot an 11 speed bargain.

The combination of constantly changing standards and bring really happy with my current bike had put me off a new bike for ages so I lost track of what works.

If you find any 11 speed deals give us a shout, all I see is it going for new rrp, which is close to new 12 speed, talk about markups!

I need to make this decision soon and I've got no idea what's out at the minute.

What's the SRAM shifter with the red plastic thing inside? Where the cable end slides out and folds over jamming it up. I want to avoid that one.

All of them.

If you find any 11 speed deals give us a shout, all I see is it going for new rrp, which is close to new 12 speed, talk about markups!

Imagine having to pay full price and supporting the industry!

There's no reason at all to go 11 if you can get 12 on your price range. I really like my 11 speed but it offers neither the range nor improved shifting of 12, its already old hat and offers nothing over 12 speed.

Shimano or sram is entirely about ergonomics, I personally don't like shimano shifting but there is nothing really between the two in terms of reliability or performance (11 speed shimano was poo mind).

The limited experience of my riding group says that shimano isn't as durable but it does tend to be cheaper. If you'd rather pay £ 3 times than £££ once, buy shimano, if you're happy with either, buy the one you like the ergonomics of, if you don't like replacing things because they wore out buy sram.

(if you break things lots buy shimano)

I can’t speak for 11 speed SRAM or 12 speed Shimano, but ridden both my 11sp XT bike and the missus 12sp GX today and still absolutely hate the SRAM shifters and although shifting sounds ‘crisp’ with SRAM, I’m sure I notice a very slight lag. XT on the other hand, seems much more intuitive and feels smoother.
Suppose SRAM still seems like the ‘newcomer’ to me and I’m in no hurry to swap from Shimano meself.

Does the 12 speed advice hold up even if that means buying a microspline freehub to make the 12 speed fit? I have a few broken bits at the mo so was going to go 11 speed deore with a big range, but this thread is making me think again. (Currently largest cog is 36t, how outdated eh)

Edit: sounds like I may be able to fit a SRAM 12 speed cassette on a HG freehub and use shimano 12 spd shifter group?

You’ll need a microspline hub if you want to use a 12 speed cassette. I don’t think there’s a choice.

For me an XT or XTR shifter is a must and the microspline freehub is a vast improvement over the easily chewed up hg one, sram XD freehub equals overpriced cassettes, that and their shifter and their dumb ideas on bb / crank interfaces put me off sram for life.
Shimano's 11sp XT rear mech was much sleeker, better looking, more robust and less finicky to set up than 12sp, I switched to XT 12sp but think 11sp could handle a lot more abuse, in my ideal world XT should drop back to 11sp but keep the microspline, hg+ and tweek the mech so it can handle a big cog but look more like m8000 than m8100.

I assume you are buying a new bike with a whole new groupset?

If not, and you are upgrading then there are some things to consider with Shimano 12 speed.

1) uses a new microspline freehub which may not be available for your hubs ( hope, ft etc do have freehubs available)

2) the chain has new profile and isn't compatible with older chainrings so you'd need a new chainring or crankset.

You’ll need a microspline hub if you want to use a 12 speed cassette. I don’t think there’s a choice.

Lots of bikes are sold with 11 50 cassettes on hg hubs so they exist but might not be sram or shimano sprockets. When buying my bike i avoided 50 11 cassettes think i'd miss the 10, i was wrong. 11 50 would be fine

Ps sram make a 50 11 cassette

I have one bike (soon to be two bikes) with SRAM shifters. I soon got used to it and it works fine. I didn’t like it at first though.

So to clarify:

Are Shimano and SRAM 12 speed cassettes interchangeable? Can you use a HG SRAM NX 12 with an otherwise Shimano set up?

Will a 12 speed SRAM rear mech work properly with 12speed Shimano shifters? Lots of people say it will. I guess both the pull ratio and Inter-sprocket spacing has to be the same for that to be the case.

Shimano 12 speed cassettes only fit microspline freehub.

Sram GX and above (10-50 / 10-52) on fit XD freehub a.

Sram 11-50 12 speed cassettes are HG so fit the old (and more common) Hg standard.

Sunrace also make a 12 speed 11-50 HG compatible cassette.

Sunrace also make 11 speed wide range cassettes with 11-50 range for HG freehub a (MX80 I think).

If you have 11 speed Sram and an XD driver Sunrace make an 10-46 cassette that is an interesting option.

Generally Sram and Shimano 12 speed seems to be interchangeable in terms of mechs / shifters etc. There is a slight cable pull difference but lots of people have made it work. YMMV.