I’m still running an ancient 3×9 XT Octalink chainset (44x32x22) but am looking for options for when the inevitable upgrade is forced upon me. I ride a rigid hardtail in gravel bike guise and tend to use the full range of gears.

I’m thinking of trying a trekking chainset (48×36,26) and an 11-36 cassette which would give me a slightly higher top gear and the same low gear (22×32).

Money’s tight and I can get a Deore chainset for £62; I’ve ridden Deore before and (apart from looking at it) can’t tell it apart from XT; I even ‘upgraded’ my current XT chainset to Deore steel inner and middle rings as they wear less and are less prone to chainsuck.

Why can’t I stop drooling over the XT equivalent at £136 (£180 in some places)?

Become an MTB anti snob, think of all the fun you’ll have sneering at those with useless, uneccessarily flash, expensive kit, whilst being frugal yourself.

I ride a rigid hardtail

That’s the spirit!

I am happy to be the object of aforementioned sneers….

You’ll not be able to use the full range of gears with that chainset, even long cage rear mechs don’t have the capacity to deal with it, I had a 22/32/44 chainset with 11-36 cassette on one of my bikes and it just couldn’t be set up to use full range, solved by swapping to a newer double chainset. If you look the later triples were 24/32/42 to compensate for the increased range on the cassette.

22×32 is not the same as 26 x 36

Deore will be an improvement over XT, as it will last longer. The main advantage of XT is weight, which probably won’t bother you.

Do you need new rings? I’m a convert to the way of Scaffy Old XTR, my M970s cost me (used) not much more than a new Deore, no rings mind, but they’re light and stiff and have been on half a dozen bikes since.

I don’t know if it’s still the case, but last time I did a comparison practically all of the weight difference between XT and SLX was in the rings. Also, SLX wears better.

XT crank skins on deore from Slik ftw.

22×32 is not the same as 26 x 36

I might have typed the figures into the gear calculator incorrectly then; thanks for pointing it out (I’ll probably need to have another look).

You’ll not be able to use the full range of gears with that chainset, even long cage rear mechs don’t have the capacity to deal with it, I had a 22/32/44 chainset with 11-36 cassette on one of my bikes and it just couldn’t be set up to use full range, solved by swapping to a newer double chainset. If you look the later triples were 24/32/42 to compensate for the increased range on the cassette.

Thanks, I could have made an expensive mistake there then; I just assumed that a long cage mech. would sort it (a 36 tooth sprocket seems fairly tame by today’s standard). Maybe just sticking with a standard triple and 32 toothed large cog is best (if I really wanted to go higher could go for a CX double and MTB cassette?).

I’ve got a 48x36x26 on my 26″ ht. Am running a 11-34 tooth cassette with absolutely zero problems whatsoever. Am skeptical about seeing a cascade of trouble being introduced by an extra 2 teeth. Pic at Hadleigh: http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/where-you-been-today/page/2#post-7982003

SGS (long cage) officially has a chain wrap capacity of 43T, (48-26)+(36-11)= 47

Not really an issue unless you want to get into the pointless situation of big-big or small-small.

Deore stuff is just fine, FWIW I have XT and Deore on different bikes.

XTR with all that cash you’re not wasting on suspension bits you know you can afford it 😉

Or get the deore stuff

And stop being such a tart

If money really is tight then get the Deore. If you can easily afford XT / XTR and really want it, then get it.

I’m not sure why people think that the ability to use the “full range” is a big issue? If the chain wrap spec. is 43T, then you simply can’t use any sprocket smaller than 15 with the little ring, so presumably all but the smallest two sprockets (assuming you set up the chain length so you can use big-big to avoid accidents). Using the two smallest sprockets with the little ring is rubbish anyway, so you’re not losing anything there – I can tell you that from experience having broken my gear cable yesterday and being stuck in the smallest cog until I screwed in the limit screw. Our tandem has a theoretical range of 41T from small/small to big/big and that certainly works fine with a 38T capacity mech.

When the OP says “full range” I’m fairly sure he’s meaning in a different sense – ie he uses both the highest and lowest gears possible.

BTW 26/36 is a little bit lower than 22/30, so it depends just how much the OP needs that very bottom gear, or if he just needs something a bit lower than the 2nd bottom.

Thanks for all the thoughts, I wasn’t aware of the chain wrap limits so that”s something I’ve learnt. I did mean that I use both the highest and lowest gears (rather than every combination) so am looking for options with the same or wider range.

There still seems to be plenty of life in my old Octalink XT setup, so there’s no rush to change. I believe that Shimano meddled with their chainring design to stop HTII rings being fitted to Octalink chainsets, otherwise I might even have been able to upgrade it to 10 speed.

Deore chainset

It weighs 1075g

T8000

868g

Is 200 grams worth paying the difference…..and how much of those 200g is in the rings 😉
Deore for me.

PJay – I think you can file a small amount of material off the HTII rings, or the spider tabs (I think middle ring only), or both, to fit newer rings on older cranks… I’ve certainly done that for older (square taper) cranks and 9 speed rings; Look on MTBR etc for details of what to do and what works…

Thanks for the tips on fitting the rings to older crank.

I clearly need to learn a bit more about chain wrap although it sounds as if if you exceed the chain wrap spec. of your rear mech. and have enough chain length to use the big ring, in the granny ring and smallest cogs there’ll be too much excess chain slopping about to the mech. to tension.

If the chain wrap spec. is 43T, then you simply can’t use any sprocket smaller than 15 with the little ring

I’m probably being dense but is that because 26+15 (or smaller) is less that 43? Years ago I was quite happily running a 3×9 Deore setup with a 48, 36, 26 crankset and an 11-32 (possibly 34) cassette and no issues.

A quick bump for the morning crowd.

Sorry for resurrecting this thread, but a bit of further research has thrown up this:

A rear mech with a 47 tooth capacity, so it might still be an option.