Having worked out (in theory) you can easily mod an SLX rear mech to work with a 42T cassette by drilling 2 holes I was planning on 1×10 and ignoring 11 speed. But then I noticed you can get Ispec B M8000 shifters.

1×10:
Saint shifter
Sunrace 11-42T cassette (the light one)
SLX rear mech (modified)
XT chain

+’s Saint shifter is very nice, £30 cheaper (allowing for 2 chains)

1×11:
XT M8000 shifter
11-42T cassette
XT rear mech
XT/Ultegra chain

+’s closer range through the cassette, potential for >42T (and larger chainring)
-‘s not tried the M8000 shifter, more expensive, higher wear?

Anyone tried both back to back? Interested to see if the new 11 speed really is an improvement worth going for.

Just mived from XTR 1×10 to mixed XT, XTR and XX1 1×11. I am dissapointed – XT shifter feels horrible notchey and shifting is both sensitive to set up and crap at the same time.

I had 1×10 with XT cassette and one up expander, Rad R cage, Deore M615 mech and shifter.

On that bike I now have full M8000 XT 1×11, it’s better, but not £292 (full drive train Inc cranks) better. Sure it’s smoother and the gaps are less, plus it looks nicer and is a tad lighter, but unless you’ve got the cash floating about doing nowt I wouldn’t bother.

It is nice to have a close spread down low.

But I suppose once you add an expander or the Sunrace jobbie, Rad R cage to the mix the M8000 looks pretty good value.

Sram X1 1×11 here and love it.
Easy to set up and maintain.
Love the range of the 10-42 cassette.

If you’re buying both new 1×11 every time. If nothing else than to get shot of the horrible gaps between the teeth at the top of the block. I actually preferred 36-11 which I ran for years to 42-11 purely because the 16t never seemed the right gear.

I thought the same about the XT shifter was not that great, however after a few week use its got loads better

But I suppose once you add an expander or the Sunrace jobbie, Rad R cage to the mix the M8000 looks pretty good value.

Sunrace wouldnt need the expander and I am pretty sure I can avoid buying the rad cage by drilling 2 holes in the standard GS or SGS cage from looking at the Rad cage and the cages on the 11 speed XT/XTR. But that is a bodge.

Buying new, well I do have an SLX rear mech and an 11-36T cassette new in packets as I was intending 2×10 but now thinking 1×10 so ideally a new rear mech (or change the cage or live with it) and prefer a new cassette than an expander.

Sunrace 11-42T 10 speed is: 11-13-15-18-21-24-28-32-36-42

If going 11 speed it would either be sunrace again: 11-13-15-17-19-21-24-28-32-36-42

or XT: 11-13-15-17-19-21-24-28-32-37-42

The XT has an even 5 jump over the last 3, the sunrace has 4 then 6 so is more like an expander.

Looking at the ratios now i can see the only real benefit to the 11 speed is the 15-17-19-21 compared to 15-18-21. Looking at conventional 9 and 10 speed (11-32, 11-34 and 11-36) I can see that a 3 teeth jump that low down is quite big.

XT shifter feels horrible notchey and shifting is both sensitive to set up and crap at the same time.

Those are my 2 concerns – crappy shifter and sensitive set up compared to 10 speed.

Got 1 x 10 11-40 on a dropped barred monster cross with praxis works cassette and 1 x 11 11-40 XT on more traditional set up.

Obviously one is STI and the shifting is going to be different but I don’t really notice any difference between the 2 in terms of shifting gaps. Maybe that’s because in reality I tend to shift a few gears at a time so the ratios become slightly irrelevant.

Found the XT easy to set up but it seems clunky to me in comparison to the 10 speed set up and don’t why but I never expect the lowest gear to actually work! (but it does)….

Gx 1×11 here zero complaints.

Half kilo cassettes and silly BCDs steered me away from M8000.
1×10 bargainous too now.

Gx 1×11 here zero complaints

+1

Sram 11 speed is so much nicer than my old 10spd plus expander setup

Have to say the hardtail is 1×10 with Shimano setup, mix of slx stuff and the full suss has SRAM on it. Every time I go back on the full suss and change gear it reminds me why I chose SRAM. Feels soooooo much nicer, the XT works everytime but the SRAM is just so much more enjoyable. You should of had a sit on mine and tried the gearing.

SRAM 1x kits can be had cheaply

https://www.bike-components.de/en/SRAM/NX-Gruppe-1×11-GXP-p48762/

Needs an XD drive on top

If buying a couple of new parts then I’d just go 11 speed. Love mine.

XT M8000 Shifter, Medium Cage M8000 Mech, XT 11-42 Cassette here. Shifter is the best part by far. So slick. Coming from 1×10 SLX shifter with Zee and XT 11-36 cassettes anyway. Not missed a shift yet and it got absolutely covered in mud on it’s first ride very unsympathetically! It was fine.

On 26 inch the mech is very vulnerable. I’ve already scraped the paint off on rocks. It’s pretty tough.

I needed a new mech and added up the cost of mech + messing about with B-Screws + expander cost and just going 11 speed seemed far easier setup wise and didn’t cost much more.

Only minor issue is back-pedal on 42 can sometimes drop. Removing one extra link has helped I think.

Waiting for the new SRAM £11 chain to come out. Running X1 chain at the moment.

An unexpected benefit is less rub at extreme ends of cassette on 1x chain guide because the chain is narrower.

Nx, it’s the really cheap one. Don’t think it needs xd but it’s only 11-42

I have one bike on 1×11 and another on 1×10 (both Shimano) and I actually prefer the 1×10 overall.

When everything is new and setup perfectly the 1×11 wins but the 1×10 stays in tune better, whereas the 1×11 is more sensitive to cable condition and setup, and how muddy it is.

On the 1×10 I run an XTR shifter, Sunrace 11-40 and XT mech with RADr cage.
On the 1×11 I run an XTR shifter, Sram 10-42 or XT 11-40, and a M8000 mech.

Had a look at the NX, not a bad price but I don’t need cranks (have some XTR to go on with an oval 32T or 34T ring, not decided which).

The cassette is also very heavy at 538g. But I am now considering a GX 10-42T as that is 325g and would get better range but that would also need a new freehub

Going with hand in hand weight the hope xd driver feels lighter too.

1x 14!

Went from 10sp SLX to 11sp XT and it’s much nicer. Shifter loosens up after a couple of rides and it’s lovely now, it feels a bit notchy if you shove the up-shift through 3 gears, but of course you can’t do that with SLX.

Been fit and forget reliable so far.

Didn’t bother with the crank though, didn’ seem much point so I stuck with the SLX and kept the same narrow/wide I was using 10sp – works well.

@P-Jay My M8000 XT been fab too and it’ll do 4 up-shift 🙂 They’re all nice clear clicks too. I now do two up then hold ready to hit another one or two if I need em.

For me the best upgrade over SLX isn’t the 4 up it’s the 2 down on the thumb and the way that double-click works.

Lovely piece of kit that shifter. I’ve even forgiven it for the muppet display thing.

I thought I’d notice the extra 100g on the 42T XT cassette over 36T old XT 325g but nope, it’s fine.

I wish they would hurry up and release the 11-46 cassette, or sunrace would bring one out too. I prefer to run larger gears than smaller ones – ie 11-46T rather than 10-42T so I can run a slightly large chainring as it seems mechanically “better”.

Got a Saint 10 speed shifter this morning which is lovely and clicky. Golfchick almost has me sold on switching fully to sram though as I do like the sram action. GX cassette and XD driver would save 130g over XT 11-46. Trying to be disciplined to save 100g in 10 places were possible.

I can run a slightly large chainring as it seems mechanically “better”.

What’s the seems about? Got no problem with a 32t here on 10-42

Running a bike sized chain on a 10T sprocket is not really ideal. Generally using larger sprockets to get the same ratio is better in terms of load handling and wear.

And that’s based on? Obviously compared to a 11t cog?

Chordal action. Stop thinking of a sprocket and chainring as a perfect circle and think of it as a polygon. The more teeth the more sides so the roundness increases. At low teeth numbers it has low roundness so the effect of uneven rotational speed increases and you get a pulsing. the effect increases exponentially at low teeth numbers.

When you have the bike in a bike stand see how different it feels as you drop down the cassette to the smaller teeth.

I think the absolute minimum sprocket size for a 1/2″ chain is 9T due to articulation and engagement etc but the environment is not exactly ideal and the system is designed for low weight and the chainline at 10T is far from ideal.

It works. It’s just better to have bigger sprockets if you can.

This article pretty much explains the benefit of larger chainrings in a way the BMX lot can fathom. Probably more relevant to us where mileage is higher and terrain conditions are worse.

Super Small Gearing