or try here

In a similar position – 1X11 curious and the bikes I am looking at are only £100 more expensive in xo1 flavour to 2X10 XT flavour.

To me the amount it will cost to run depends how much you end up using the silly soft aluminium last gear – if it’s an emergency gear you only go to when you absolutely need to then I reckon it’s liveable with. If (due to your fitness, the terrain you ride or the suitability of the front chain ring size) you end up in it for the majority of the majority of your climbs that £200 cassette might need replacing sooner than my wallet could handle.

Since dec 2012 = 1x rear mech (bent), 1x jockey wheels, on the 2nd cassette and 4 chains.

if you’re asking the question its probably not for you.

Nick

I change chains at 0.5, and at £14 a chain (SRAM cheapest 9-spd) it’s a no-brainer – 3-4 rides per week in all weathers and only one bike I guess 🙂

I’ve tried running 1 chain further and it just seems to knacker the cassette/rings far quicker.

And rear mechs; we moved up to the Scottish Borders 2 years ago and I’ve broken 5 plus seem to be buying new jockey wheels inbetween breakages.

One of the reasons I’m still 9-spd, cost, and my lovely XTR shifters 🙂

I’ve tried running 1 chain further and it just seems to knacker the cassette/rings far quicker.

Absolutely, but by doing that, I’d expect cassettes to last many many thousands of miles, thus you’d not be needing a couple every year? Doesn’t negate the exorbitant costs of the 11 speed cassettes (and mechs in your case), but I’d expect it to be more of an initial outlay than ongoing costs.

I have too much history of smashed mechs twisted chains and bent cassettes to spend that much. The almost always wet Lakes and bogs seem to accelerate wear.

This is not a like for like though – your XTR was made of steel, these xo1 and xx1 cassettes have a cog made of aluminium. No amount of chain cleaning or swapping is going to account for that change unless you can avoid using the cog too much in day to day use.

I got 760 winter/spring miles out of my X01 cassette before it started slipping on the steepest of climbs on the 42 ring (it did have a broken tooth as well though).
The chain was only worn to 0.5 so I changed that and the whole thing was a bag shite (in just the 42 ring). I changed the cassette last week and you can tell it’s running better across the whole cassette not just the 42 ring so it must have been pretty worn across the lot.
Up shot is that it could have lasted longer had it not been for the wear on the 42 ring and I would’ve liked more out if it.

Can you replace the 42s on their own?

However it does have more teeth so should in theory be more durable.. but cassettes should be able to be repaired, full stop.

I change chains at 0.5, and at £14 a chain (SRAM cheapest 9-spd) it’s a no-brainer – 3-4 rides per week in all weathers and only one bike I guess

I’ve tried running 1 chain further and it just seems to knacker the cassette/rings far quicker.

And rear mechs; we moved up to the Scottish Borders 2 years ago and I’ve broken 5 plus seem to be buying new jockey wheels inbetween breakages.

One of the reasons I’m still 9-spd, cost, and my lovely XTR shifter

You can get the shimano 9sp xtr chain between £12 & £15 now.

Is 11sp the same size freehub as 10?

@leftyboy. There’s no email address for Sram on their web site so I sent it to Fisheroutdoor. They’ve got a contact form on their web site but a copy came back via my email from sales@fisheroutdoor.co.uk

Message: Some feed back for you to pass on to Sram please. The life expectancy out of the X01 & XX1 cassette for the 1×11 set up is unacceptable, especially on the rear 42 ring. I picked up a new bike in October last year and have done 760 miles on it throughout the winter and spring. 2 weeks ago it started slipping on the 42 ring but only on the steepest of climbs. I checked the chain and it had 0.5mm stretch on it so I decided to change the chain and get some more life out of the rest of the drive train (this is the advice Sram are giving out to local bike stores I’m told). The result was terrible and the 42 ring was unusable. So I’ve now changed the cassette and it’s instantly back to it’s best but I have to say that it was clearly only the 42 ring that was worn enough to warrant replacing the whole cassette. Clearly the 42 ring is not replaceable on it’s own as it’s riveted to the rest of the cassette but to make the ring that replaces the 2x at the front and that is under the most strain unreplaceable on it’s own and worse still make it out of a softer metal (aluminium) seems madness. If I didn’t know any better Sram could be accused of engineering a cassette which has to be replaced quicker than any other they’ve made because it’s one of their most expensive and will generate a substantial income. There is an under lying current of displeasure among riders on the issue of durability of the 1×11 Sram drive train and riders are either swapping to other systems or not bothering at all with the up grade. As a minimum Sram should either make the 42 ring harder wearing or they should engineer a cassette where the 42 ring can be replaced on it’s own. I am sure you will agree that £340 plus, every 760 miles is not fair on the riders, no matter how well it works. I’d welcome any feed back.

You miss my point. If you had a 30t ring you’d not use the 42 as much and it wouldn’t wear. In most of my riding I don’t use the 10 or the 42, which suggests to me I’m about right. I doubt I’ve done more than 5 miles in the 42.

Watching carefully as thinking about 1×11 for a new build but not keen on mega expensive ongoing costs.

Is shimano 1×11 more of an option given that whilst its xtr only at launch, it fits on a normal free hub and doesn’t use a proprietary manufacturing process so should trickle down to allow cheaper chain and sprocket replacement in the future?

The launch blurb states that their 1×11 isn’t a trail system and they recommend 2×11 for that but isn’t that just bluster seeing as lots of people manage plenty big enough hills on 1×10 already…

I was thinking xtr shifter, cassette and chain then to control costs a 3rd party crank set with thick n thin chainring. Would this be compatible with the shimano chain?

Obviously, all of which is entirely irrelevant and why I never said what sized ring I use – just that if you’re using the 42 a lot then I’d argue that a smaller chain ring may be a wise investment. This isn’t anything to do with how I ride, what I ride, relative fitness etc, just that if you’re spending a disproportionate amount of time in the lowest gear then it makes sense to run a smaller chainring. The only reason not to is bravado. Assuming equal usage I’d expect the 10 to wear out far quicker than the 42.

I’d expect that the extremes of the cassette get the least use, of course they’re fit to be used, but just as I’d expect the 10 to wear out very quickly if you use it a lot, I’d expect the 42 to do the same…

Shimano will be narrower, but only you can say if it’ll be too narrow.

SRAM will likely do a cheaper one eventually, but it’ll weigh about the same as a small planet.

If you type “gear calculator” in to Google it is the first hit

In response to the actual question this thread is about….

I have ~1400 miles/ 140 hours on XX1 and have only just replaced the first chain. This is riding through the end of winter to nowish around South Wales so not an easy life despite not riding it too much so far. For comparison, it is holding up much better than XT or XTR I have had before (slipping and frustrating after ~800 miles). No concerns about durability from me although there was another thread where others were struggling to get decent life out of the XO1 cassette despite previously being happy with the XX1 version…

Conversely, an alu chainring doesn’t have to deal with any shifting so wear will affect performance less… Both my alu ring and XX1 cassette seem to be wearing very well.

In theory the XO1 and XX1 cassettes should be identical but some here on STW have found the alu 42T on XO1 to cause issues after relatively little use but found the alu 42T on XX1 to be extremely hard wearing.

Basically, I would buy an XX1 rather than XO1 cassette and not get too hung up on the 42T being alu- it is plenty durable (on XX1 especially)