50t to 52t cassette

Possibly. If your running your chain as short as possible it'll not be long enough and you'll need to adjust the b tension if it was set correctly in the first place.

If you’re changing your cassette then I’d be changing your chain at the same time. Would follow the sram guide to chain sizing and start from scratch. Don’t forget to use the sram b screw tool thing to get it set right.

^^^ That.

The above advice about a new chain stands but just food for thought - every chain length possible suits 2 set ups. I realised this when playing about with chainring size. A chain which is sized to a 30T chain ring will also be perfect for the 28, or the 32, but not both. And you don't know which one until you try it.

I could be wrong but you may also need to check your wheels have an xd driver hub? I bought a bike that I hadn't realised thecstock wheels had a standard hub so was restricted to the OE GX cassette, so 11-50..until I got some nicer, lighter wheels with an XD hub and moved to a 10-52.

Thanks all. I have a new chain, well a few rides old and it’s not playing nicely with the cassette so I think need a new cassette. I do have an xd driver I believe- so I thought either 50 or 52 in gx flavour will fit? But is one xd and the other microspline?!

If it is 10-50 or 10-52 then it'll be XD so will fit on no problems. Then make sure chain is right length and b-tension screw adjusted and it should be sweet.
SRAM don't do microspline so it will only be XD. If getting non-sram cassette then double check.

I think Shimano/SRAM mirospline limits the smallest cog to 11t. As DickBarton says above, if you already run a 10-50t it'll be an XD hub. I think the 52t cassettes only come as XD 10-52 (I.e. you can't get a 11-52t, but you can get an 11-50t).

Officially, no you can’t.

If your GX drivetrain came with a 10-50 tooth cassette, it’s likely that it’s the old style mech. When SRAM brought out the 10-52 drivetrain to catch up with Shimano, they updated the mech. The new mech is backwards compatible with the older cassette, but not vice versa.

If you fit it, it will work, but the mech will be strained, and there’s a risk it’ll disintegrate and destroy the rest of your drivetrain, as happened to the person I know who did this.

FYI the 11-50 cassette is NX not GX, and is on the Shimano HG freehub standard, compared to all the SRAM 10t cassettes which are on the XD standard.

As above, chain length isn't really the issue, the first generation eagle mechs are not officially meant to work with the 52t cog on the new cassettes, I mean you can try it, but it's not exactly cheap to find out.

If you're after more climbing gears then drop the front chainring size a tad, which when you consider that the cassette is worn out, there's a fair chance the chainring is screwed also.

Yeah my mate did his chain, cassette, mech (obviously) and rear wheel. Plus he had a big off when he did it.

I think Shimano/SRAM mirospline limits the smallest cog to 11t. As DickBarton says above, if you already run a 10-50t it’ll be an XD hub. I think the 52t cassettes only come as XD 10-52 (I.e. you can’t get a 11-52t, but you can get an 11-50t).

Shimano HG smallest cog is 11t, this freehub is also compatible with SRAM HG amnd other brands such as Microshift, Sunrace etc. 9, 10, 11 and 12 speed (mtb) all fit, up to 52t big cog is available from a number of far eastern suppliers.

Shimano Microspline will only fit Microspline compatible cassettes, typically down to 10t and is only 12 speed. 10-45 or 10-51 only.

SRAM XD is only compatiable with XD cassettes from the likes of SRAM, Sunrace, Garbaruk, typically a 10t smallest, but there area few that start on a 9t, AirBike being one of them. 11 and 12 speed.