seen a bike I like the look of.
it is fitted with 12 speed eagle gearing.
if I kept the bike long enough for the gearing to wear out, would the possibility of fitting shimano be a option?
Yes
I should have added, like fitting a shimano cassette on the hub and such.
No shimano cassette will fit the hub, so you'd have to swap the freehub, which is possible for most brands.
IF you wanted to downgrade to Shimano 11sp, you could use a SRAM cassette - GX cassettes are close to XT price, maybe a tenner more, but are much lighter, and last longer. And cheaper overall than buying a Shimano cassette and a new freehub.
Anything 10sp or less, new freehub. Shimano 12sp cassette - new freehub.
Any particular reason you'd want to swap it? GX cassettes are pretty solid at 11 speed (I use them with a Shimano mech as a preference). I'm getting a lot more life out of them than Shimano 10s stuff. If the 12 speed versions are, as they appear, the same but with a 50t on the back, then I don't see a great reason to change.
My GX Eagle 12 speed is 20months old and still going strong!
Yeah, the cassette is one of the best components of Eagle!
Swap shifter/mech if you really want to but keep the cassette I say. personally I really like Eagle and have no plans to change to Shim anytime soon.
Got it on most of our bikes and would not want to go back
I used to be Shimano through - always first choice on MTB's. Until I got my HB160, that is - came with 11 speed XX1 shifter and mech. It was good. Then as a result of that I went 12 speed via the Eagle route. All good so far.
Shimano haven't helped endear themselves to me by being arses with the MicroSpline licences.
Consensus on another thread seem to be stick with sram eagle cassette & chain but get Shimano 12 rear derailleur & shifter 🤷
New bike i got this year came with eagle and that's the first time I've had a sram drivetrain...all good really aside the eye-watering replacement cost although my only niggle is i do still miss the dual direction downshifting of my XT shifter
Also depends on which Eagle cassette is on the bike. If it's NX it's on a shimano hub anyway. Although I'm just waiting for the boat anchor NX on my bike to die (which it shows no signs of doing) then I'll replace it with a GX cassette and matching driver to save some weight.
