will a sram x7 rear derailleur work ok with a XT cassette

I cant find a 10speed sram 11-34 cassette

Yep fine. Assuming you’re using the appropriate sram shifter, the rear mech will live quite happily with that cassette.

yep sram levers.

great cheers

do sram not do a 10sp 11-34

its probably because a 10sp 11-34 cassette is pointless.

how come?

the marketing men said so. for actual riding, it’s great, particularly with a triple. But if it suits your riding, then go for it – as with all gear ratio stuff.

i thought the whole point of 10 speed was a bigger range cassette?

11-34 is a normal 9sp range. therefore you dont achieve any benefit from running this 10sp (other than maybe having a clutch mech – which you are not)

infact you probably end up with more of a maintenance liablity.

with the ‘advancement’ from 8-9speed they ‘filled in’ the jump in gear ratios in a 8sp cassete (or at least thats how it was sold) with 10 speed they’ve barely got a reason to jusify it. lord knows the reasoning behind 11 speed.

I’s like a 34-34 ratio on my cx bike for the peaks. at present I’m running a 34/46- 11-28.

will I need a long cage? or medium?

which would be the most reliable?

you can use a medium cage on that set up – as you don’t have the small inner ring up front which would neccesitate the long mech.