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As my 9 speed set up (1x9. 11-42) is wearing out, and composed of a mixture of C20 year old parts and budget replacements, I thought I'd consider going for something newer....
I'm sticking with an HG freehub, so cassette options are limited to budget and/or random Chinese. But I'm more interested in the hive minds thoughts on:
11 speed or 12 speed? Is 12 speed much more finickety than 11? I've heard it can be?
I was looking at Chinese branded stuff such as the ltwoo AX Or Sensah crx having had good experiences with their road STIs, but then I found that deore 11speed mech/shifters are about the same price from uk sources.
I do. However, prefer the SRAM ergonomics with the thumb-push "trigger", but SRAM 11 and 12 speed parts seem more expensive and have poor durability from what I've read?
Help me choose, oh STW hivemind.... Or just recommend what you have if you like....
Thanks!
i went back to 9 speed on both bikes. it just works better IMHO
i had a 12 speed micro spline setup on a bike with a single ring. very crunchy shifting,always in the wrong gear.
i had a rohloff for a few years, again always in the wrong gear.
so 26/36/46 on my tourer with a 12/36 cassette and a 26/38 on the krampus with a 12/42 cassette.
both are flawless.
My MK1 Cotic Soul has been treated to a SRAM "NX in a box" groupset. I bought the non-boost box, added a Dub bottom bracket and it's perfect. Easy to set up, never misses a beat. 11-50 goodness.
Nothing else needed changing. Standard 9spd freehub.
I really rate the LinkGlide stuff. It uses the HG freehub, standard 11 speed chains and chainrings and then a more robust shifter, mech and cassette. Available with 9, 10 or 11 speed cassettes.
However the product names and numbers are utterly baffling! Some of it is called CUES, some LinkGlide, mine is LinkGlide XT with the non-XT cassette.
It’s made for MTB, commuter, and e-bikes.
I've got Deore 12sp on 2 bikes and XT 12sp on 1 and they're both great. Can't really tell the difference. XT is probably nicer to shift but not massively....
There's not much difference between 11 and 12 speed really...you can get 51 tooth rear HG cassettes. It comes down to cost and brand preference I reckon.
I've had similar longevity from SRAM and Shimano, I prefer the Shimano shifter and that you can replace individual sprockets on a Shimano cassette for pennies if you're caning the little ones. Also I think the Shimano jockey wheels are cheaper.
But definitely avoid the SLX 11-speed cassette - a mate and I have both found they creak like buggery where there must be some slight movement at the sprocket connecting pins.
I found cheap SRAM 12 speed to be gash. Very difficult to keep shifting smoothly, went back to Shimano 11 speed which needs a bit of fettling now but after probably 2 years. Actually has a wider range cassette too.
Have you looked at Microshift gear sets? They're quite well established now and seems popular on those old bike resto YouTube channels. 10 speed might be your max there.
I went from 2x10 (11-36 + 26/36), to 1x11 (11-51 + 32) Deore with an XT shifter,
Love it. I do lose a little top end but rarely miss it, I'm pretty much freewheeling at 25mph+ anyway on a steep descent, and the 51 tooth gets my weak old legs up a 20% incline relatively easily.
The only slight niggle I have is, there's a slightly odd step in the middle, but I really only notice if I'm not gaining speed quickly.
I have 10 (cues/linkglide on one and 2xHg on another) and 11speed (hg) on my bikes and don’t notice much difference, I like my 10speeds for commuting/pootling and the 11speed for more hilly stuff. TBH I pick up what bits are cheapest (usually 10speed for me) when deciding and have never found myself wanting 12 speed, seems too much for me. I like my old XT (785?) 2x10 best over the newer m8000 as it feels robust and just works, never let me down yet.
I just bought a deore 11 speed transmission groupset. Shifter, mech, chain, cassette for €83 from bike discount. It's going on a 20 year old on one so i've got something to ride around when i'm at my partners place. cassette will fit directly on my 20 year old easton wheels, or my 15 year old hopes...
Microshift Advent X.
10 speed. I use the mech and shifter with a SunRace 11-46 (I think - might be 11-48) cassette.
Perfectly acceptable performance for a very sensible price.
Don't get the Microshift cassettes imo. The steel one is horrendously heavy and I bent a couple of cogs on the part alloy one fairly easily with a bad shift under high load.
I wouldn't buy SRAM below GX, it's just not very good, but 12sp GX and above are some of the easiest groupsets to live with IMO. They 're easy to set up, they are ridiculously long-lasting, and don't get out of tune. there's only two downsides, 1. changing cables on SRAM shifters is more tricky compared with the ease of Shimano and 2, the 50Nm 8mm hex on the chainset, oh and 3. the price obviously, but I can overlook that for the longevity.
I just put a 1x10 Deore Linkglide setup on my wife's hardtail and we've been impressed. Deore shifter and rear mech (M5130) paired with an 11-48 cassette. The mech is supposedly only rated up to a 43t cog but I read online that it works ok with the 48t CUES cassette and indeed it does. Just had to play around with the b-tension. Shifter, mech, chain and cassette came in around €70 euros from Bike Discount (a mix of OEM and boxed parts). The chain is a standard 11-speed so works with existing cranks and narrow wide rings. The cassette is heavy but you can buy more expensive, lighter ones.
The CUES / Linkglide naming is confusing but basically CUES replaces / unifies all the Shimano lower-end stuff like Acera, Alevio, Altus etc and uses the Linkglide system which is a different cassette cog thickness / shifter and mech cable pull ratio designed for durability and longevity over fast shifting. Deore / Deore XT Linkglide components are noticeably better made than the CUES stuff e.g. the shifter and mech we bought were both made in Japan rather than Indonesia or Malaysia.
There are a number options that I'd consider, none of which would be 12 speed:
- Linkglide 11sp mentioned above
- Linkglide 10sp with the 11-48t cassette mentioned above
- Shimano 11sp, but possibly with a Sunrace 11-46t or 11-50t cassette for better ratios (and XT shifter)
- Microshift 10sp 11-48t
Personally I'm wary of no-name cassettes, they seem like a potential false economy for such a crucial and hard-working component.
I went Shimano XT 11 speed, picking up cheap bits from various online stores; and then a Sunrace cassette for the slightly better spread of ratios. There's a reason Shimano have been top of the pile for so long - it usually just works.
That said, it's a bit more fiddly getting the mech hanger alignment just right; there's still 2 gears in the middle where I have to shift a bit more carefully to ensure it hits the right one
I'm not a particularly big trasher of drivetrains so I can't understand the reticence towards SRAM.
I've had 3 bikes with NX cassettes, now just 3.
I've had NX, GX and GX AXS shifters and haven't regretted it.
Did the cheap NX thing. It’s ok. But I have worn out more cassettes and snapped more chains than anything else I’ve had. I get about 6months out of them.
The high torque chainset is fine until it isn’t. You need to anti seize the bolt and own a breaker bar.
otherwise all good
£130 will get you Shimano SLX 11-speed cassette, derailleur and shifter*. Add a Shimano MT510 12-speed chainset (works fine with 11-speed set up) for £30 and a KMC X11 chain for £26 and you're sorted.
That's what I'd go for. SLX is the sweet spot between cost and function.
*SLX and above shifters use thumb push to change down gear and thumb push or finger push for up shifts.
I now run 12sp + 10sp, as does one son, my wife 10sp (x2), and eldest son 9sp.
Eldest has had 10/11/12 speed for years. But has gone back to Microshift and Shimano mix 9sp. He has found that it lasts so much longer, is less susceptible to knocks and scrapes, and when it breaks costs half as much. His use this year has been over 200(!) laps of Queenstown Bike Park in 6 months...
My and my wife's 10sp is across MTB and 'do it all' gravel & hybrid, ebike and analogue. They just work.
My 12sp seems so finickity to cables, is wearing faster than I expected and I am considering returning back to 10 or 11sp on my main bike.
Are you using drop bar shifter sti at the front or trigger style sti MTB style like Deore. If you are using the trigger style I would happily use 9 or 10 speed. I would say if you are switching to a single ring set up the more gears the better but if you have a double it triple at the front then 9 is just fine also. The expense is always drop bar sti shifters which is why I think you may be looking at the Chinese offerings. I have heard good things but on them but I would personally stay with Shimano currently as why risk otherwise when the performance and reliability of Shimano is there.
Just to echo the sentiment that SRAM Eagle 12 speed GX and above lasts forever when compared to Shimano 12 speed.
I'm sticking with an HG freehub, so cassette options are limited to budget and/or random Chinese.
Shimano still use HG for everything up to 11 speed so unless money is really tight then I would always prefer a heavy, steel Shimano cassette with proper shifting ramps than a cheapo. Used SunRace cassettes in the past though and they are OK, but generally the same price as a CUES or Deore one nowadays.
I’m in a position where I can run anything I want, more or less. I’ve settled on Shimano 10 or 11 speed, high end shifter (Saint or XTR) with Deore cassette and rear mech, SLX chainset. You don’t mind if it dies out… and yet it never does. Win, win.
I've got some brand new unused 10spd Deore kit for sale if you were interested... Came on my GF's new bike that was upgraded from new...
10spd right hand shifter, 11-46 cassette, chain and long cage derailleur...
Used SunRace cassettes in the past though and they are OK, but generally the same price as a CUES or Deore one nowadays.
I favour SunRace over Shimano for 11-s. Nicer spaced gears on the bigger cassettes.
I’d get a Deore 5100 (1x11 mech) and go from there. although it’s not in the blurb it will work with 10 speed, and there’s plenty of dynasis shifters and wide range cassettes about at affordable prices. At the same time there’s also lots of cheap 11 speed parts about too, all HG compatible but that mech gives you options and doesn’t cost the Earth.
6100 (12 speed version) is similarly forwards/backwards compatible, but you don’t absolutely have to have all the clicks today.