Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 61 total)
  • Does anybody commute on XTR?
  • GSuperstar
    Free Member

    I know that people will be offended with the title and screaming bad things from their computers, but, I’ll explain my question.

    Firstly, my ‘commute’ as such, is a 20 minute ride to work, and a 25 minute ride home. I’m very fortunate where I live!

    I currently choose to have 1 bike, due to many things, but mainly space and money.

    Now my main bike, I always like to put a lot of money into it as it’s the only one I have. For the last couple of years I’ve commuted on my Alpine 160, full saint groupset. Exactly same spec as I ride it when going off road.

    Now I’ve just purchased a new Tracer 2, and it’s going to have the same life, but I’m thinking of heading down the XTR route, weight saving, fashion etc and wondering if it’s a financially stupid idea? I don’t wish to go XT as I’d rather just stay with Saint in that respect.

    Stupid idea?

    ruscle
    Free Member

    I used to commute on XX group set. Only thing I noticed was I would go through cassettes a lot quicker than friends, would also need to replace my rear tyre a lot which can get expensive as used to run conti black chilli tyres. Nothing else wore out, I would look at getting a spare rear wheel with XT cassette on and a slick-ish tyre.

    meehaja
    Free Member

    my commuter is my best bike. When you ride 30 miles a day on it, why not go for best you can afford?

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    GSuperstar
    Free Member

    Well, I’ve been commuting on UST Minions for the last year so I’m fine with stuff like that. I didn’t really think about cassette, I think without a doubt I’d be going for an XT or SLX cassette good shout.

    I know the XTR front chain rings are very expensive, but my current one lasted a year and a bit, should I expect the same?

    GSuperstar
    Free Member

    meehaja – I agree with that in principle as that’s what I do, it was merely whether the XTR would be a silly upgrade over the Saint with commuting in mind.

    njee20
    Free Member

    Only thing I noticed was I would go through cassettes a lot quicker than friends, would also need to replace my rear tyre a lot which can get expensive as used to run conti black chilli tyres.

    Sod the tyres, XX cassettes at £320 a pop would do it for me!

    I commute intermittently on a Dura Ace equipped road bike, generally from March – October, but periodically over winter as well. As above, commute is 45 miles each way, I enjoy it more (and go faster) on the nicer bike!

    I wouldn’t buy an XTR groupset purely for commuting, but then I wouldn’t buy an MTB for commuting!

    bigyinn
    Free Member

    I found I wore different sprockets (usually the smaller ones) out when communting, compared to offroading. Similarly I spent more time in the big ring too so they tended to wear more.

    rocketman
    Free Member

    Does anybody commute on XTR?

    Yozo Shimano has just comitted harakiri

    fasthaggis
    Full Member

    Does commuting on Dura ace count 😀

    I commute on Rohloff. 8)

    What Ruscle said, get a spare wheel or pair of wheels. Cheaper and easier to store than a complete bike.

    GSuperstar
    Free Member

    I wouldn’t buy an XTR groupset purely for commuting, but then I wouldn’t buy an MTB for commuting!

    Njee- I agree as I wouldn’t either, but then this is my bike for eevrything, lets face it 45 minutes round trip isnt ridiculous by any means in terms of commuting. However the benefits would be for my riding elsewhere on the weekends and week nights, which is literally once a week minimum.

    br
    Free Member

    I’ve only one bike and its full XTR, but if I was commuting 45 miles per day I’d put slicks on a spare set of wheels, cassette possibly too.

    zippykona
    Full Member

    I’ve got an xtr front v brake does that count?

    tomhoward
    Full Member

    I have XTR on my FS MTB which I commute on (similar distances to the OP) when it’s sunny 🙂

    LabMonkey
    Free Member

    It is not commuting admittedly, but I train all the time, that means all winter, on my race road bike – so full dura ace, full carbon rims, tubular race tyres – the full shebang! I ride because I love riding and I wouldn’t want to ride a piece of shit and have something nice sitting gathering dust. If I had to commute, I would ride something nice every day.

    njee20
    Free Member

    Njee- I agree as I wouldn’t either, but then this is my bike for eevrything, lets face it 45 minutes round trip isnt ridiculous by any means in terms of commuting. However the benefits would be for my riding elsewhere on the weekends and week nights, which is literally once a week minimum.

    That’s fine, I said I wouldn’t do it purely for commuting, this isn’t purely for commuting, this is your ‘for everything’ bike. My only MTB has XTR, nowt wrong with that.

    uwe-r
    Free Member

    Common problem this if you run just one bike. If you ride in traffic in bad weather (oily, salty, crappy spray getting all over your bike) you can wreck your bike very quickly.

    njee20
    Free Member

    I don’t really tend to find that. My ‘nice’ road bike (the aforementioned Dura Ace one) is 8 years old now, and when new was my only road bike, so got used a lot in all the crap weather. I’ve never really found parts wear out that much quicker. Get dirtier for sure.

    GSuperstar
    Free Member

    I’ve only one bike and its full XTR, but if I was commuting 45 miles per day I’d put slicks on a spare set of wheels, cassette possibly too.

    It’s 45minutes per day, not miles.

    njee – Yeah I think you’re correct, I’m almost at the point where I’m not even classing it as a commute, and if I think of it as a fun 45 minute urban ride everyday, suddenly the XTR being bad concept doesn’t even come into it.

    Think I’m sold 😀

    ScotlandTheScared
    Full Member

    Don’t think of it as ‘commuting’ just think of it as ‘cycling’ and therefore why would xtr be a bad thing. I run xtr for my commute/cycle.

    Schweiz
    Free Member

    Why would you use XTR? Shimano do a commuter specific range of components called Yumeya which will bring you substantial performance benefits on your daily grind.

    Cheers
    Schweiz

    Stu_N
    Full Member

    The MTB I commute on has some XTR stuff on it – Dual Control shifters, discs and mechs and front hub. We had them in the house when I was building it up – stripped off another bike that was sold as frame only – so figured I might as well use them. It’s old 2003 vintage xt stuff (M960 series) so not worth a lot to sell on, but its done plenty miles and has a lot left in it hopefully.

    Chainrings, chain and cassette aren’t XTR though – mix of what’s cheap. 2000 miles a year on an MTB tends to burn through that sort of stuff fairly quickly.

    porter_jamie
    Full Member

    my commuter gt avalanche happens to have an xtr rear mech. i am going to replace it incase it gets pinched.

    njee20
    Free Member

    Chainrings, chain and cassette aren’t XTR though – mix of what’s cheap. 2000 miles a year on an MTB tends to burn through that sort of stuff fairly quickly.

    Get a road bike. The rings on my winter bike have done getting on for 10000 miles (and probably 3-4 times that on the ‘nice’ bike!), it’s been cleaned 3 times I think and they’re still fine! It’s on it’s second chain and cassette admittedly.

    adstick
    Free Member

    XT on your mountain bike and use the spare money to buy a more suitable commuting bike?

    GSuperstar
    Free Member

    Why would you use XTR? Shimano do a commuter specific range of components called Yumeya which will bring you substantial performance benefits on your daily grind.

    Cheers
    Schweiz

    Because if you read any of my previous comments you will see that commuting is only a minute part of what the bike is used for 😀

    GSuperstar
    Free Member

    XT on your mountain bike and use the spare money to buy a more suitable commuting bike?

    Again, from the very first post…

    currently choose to have 1 bike, due to many things, but mainly space and money

    njee20
    Free Member

    Because if you read any of my previous comments you will see that commuting is only a minute part of what the bike is used for

    Look up what Yumeya is – you’ll see he was joking 🙂

    Mister-P
    Free Member

    Schweiz is pulling your leg. Yumeya is upgrade parts for XTR to make it even more expensive.

    GSuperstar
    Free Member

    I apologise Schweiz wasn’t aware you could ‘upgrade’ XTR!

    On that note, OMG HOW MUCH IS THAT STUFF?!

    njee20
    Free Member

    Very Japanese, it’s totally pointless! You can get ti bolts for 1/4 the price of the Yumeya ones.

    zbonty
    Full Member

    My commuter has an old (M960 i think) XTR mech. Got to be 15 years old now. Its all recycled someway or other.

    Still solid and functional but has had two new sets £2.99 jockey wheels in it’s time.
    Ride whatever you want.

    njee20
    Free Member

    M960 was only rapid rise, 2003 – 2006. More likely to be M952 I’d have thought (the matt grey stuff).

    Stu_N
    Full Member

    njee – there was a normal mech in the M960 series stuff. I well remember buying one and taking long enough to work out why i couldnt get gears set up right.

    M960 was metallic shiny slate grey; the M950 stuff was a matt brownish grey.

    drookitmunter
    Free Member

    My commute is a 50 minute round trip. About 25% on road. I do it on XT kit. If I could afford XTR I’d probably buy it! Whatever makes you happy mate, don’t worry about what folk think.

    Mister-P
    Free Member

    Stu – M960 was rapid rise only. M952 carried on alongside it as the “normal” option. Then it was all replaced by M97 series which has rapid rise, normal and shadow options.

    aracer
    Free Member

    I commute intermittently on a Dura Ace equipped road bike

    I bet you thought you were going to win the status war with that, but I’m afraid I have to point out that I occasionally commuted on a Campag Record equipped road bike 😉

    I also have a smattering of XTR (old 8-speed stuff) on my “hack” mountain bike. As others have pointed out, if you’re not leaving it somewhere it’s liable to get nicked, you can afford it, you appreciate top end kit and you like to enjoy all your riding, then why not. After all, nobody even comments on people spunking huge amounts more money on a boring brand new Mondeo for commuting.

    njee20
    Free Member

    I bet you thought you were going to win the status war with that, but I’m afraid I have to point out that I occasionally commuted on a Campag Record equipped road bike

    Nah, not really, not sure I can win any status wars with my 8 year old bike anyway 🙂

    I think the most ‘commute inappropriate’ part is the PowerTap, but seeing as it’s a significant proportion of my riding I may as well collect the data!

    Stu – M960 was rapid rise only. M952 carried on alongside it as the “normal” option

    He’s right! A top-normal mech was mooted at first, but never actually happened.

    muppetWrangler
    Free Member

    I have done in the past, although eventually i did buy a cheaper bike for commuting which I used most of the time but i still used the fancy bike either when I discovered that the commuter had a flat just before I was due to leave or if the weather was good.

    The best compromise sounds like it would be to use top end brakes, gears and shifters with a cheaper cassette & chain (spare wheels with slicks would likely be easiest). Chainrings are the only thing that stand out as being a bit of a pain as changing them over is a bit more of a faff than cassette and chain but they are liable to wear and be an expensive thing to keep replacing if you’re doing all weather commuting miles.

    Mister-P
    Free Member

    A colleague of mine used to commute on a Dura Ace Di2 equipped Cervelo R3SL.

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 61 total)

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