Sunrace 11-50 cassette £60 ish from altheteshop. SLX/XT 11 speed shifter £26/£33 from CRC. SLX/XT long cage mech from CRC £33/£61. Narrow ride chainring and chain of your choice. I went OneUp as it comes with spacers to alter chainline and then a KMC chain.

I was a bit disappointed that just after I got my new bike with GX 11 speed that GX 12 speed was released so quickly. Thought maybe 11 speed was a compromise and 12 would have been much better.

However, the range on 11 speed has been great so far – I’ve ever wanted for a lower or higher gear – I’ve got a GX 10-42 cassette with a 30t Sram chainring. Note I ride a 32lb (ish) Enduro type of. Ike and mostly ride trail centres / uplift days. Long natural rides with large road sections don’t feature that often.

That said, when I’ve been on the road with it the range has been fine – with the weight / 2.5 wide tyres running just over 20 psi I’ve not exactly been ripping up the tarmac to need a higher gear!

The cost of cassettes – especially 12 speed – is quite frightening still at the moment.

For the main consumable? While the top end Sram is a gorgeous bit of CNC is it really worth 3x the Shimano/Sunrace equivalent? I went through three cassettes before I needed to replace the derailleur. The Shimano Xt M8000, Sunrace MX8 and Sram XG-1150 11spd 11-42T cassettes all come in around the 400g mark. Move up to the Sram XG-1180 and you double the price to lose 90g.

I dunno, is it 3x the price? 11sp gx is close to xt money fir lighter.

@mikenewsmith – there’s several Sram 11spd cassettes, there’s one at £90 that is about 25g lighter than the Shimano XT version at £55, there’s one at circa 320g for £180 then there’s one at £270 and 260g. By my calcs those prices are 1.6x, 3.2x and 4.9x the cost of the Shimano XT.

Buy the new spec Voodoo Bizango (using 10% BC discount) for the 1×11 parts and then sell the bits you don’t want?

http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/mountain-bikes/voodoo-bizango-29er-mens-mountain-bike

Doubt it as the 11 speed is enough range for many people and therefore in demand still.

I will say SRAM XX1 11s has been the best performing drivetrain I’ve ever had, super smooth. Also has been quite robust.

If you’re looking for serious VFM the new Deore 11/42 10sp cassettes are cheaper and lighter then the 11sp XT cassette with the same range.

Couple that with some 10sp XTR or XT stuff (assuming that’s all buttons now).

Fair enough but the first two cassettes I used in the comparison are both XG. I don’t know the Sram groupset levels, I’m assuming XG is roughly XT.

Personally I think the best value for money, performance, durability, etc. is SLX. The top range stuff is fine if you are a sponsored rider but most of us aren’t. Then again it’s your/the OP’s money so it’s up to you how you wish to spend it.

4K on a single cassette is impressive. Not sure what I’ve got out of my XT cassettes (I’m using a 40T extender with a standard 11-36 cassette so 10spd not 11spd), probably in the 3000Km range as I put the fourth one on earlier this year at around the 9000Km mark for the bike. I replaced everything apart from the rear mech a few weeks prior to the HT550 and that broke a couple of weeks later so should have done that as well.

Plugged the SRAM cassette into gear calculator (actually the XX1 but it has the same ratios as the XG) and while it’s got 420% range due to the 10T rather than the 380% range of the XT, the ratio gaps in the middle of the block aren’t as nice for me.