Just building up a new bike (my first build) and wondering if I should get SLX or XT 1 x 11.
Is XT really worth the extra?
Last query can SLX take bigger than 42cassette if I wanted to upgrade in the future.

Looking at going 30t and 11-42 as I like the climbs but do a lot of riding in the flat lands between Selby and Goole.

SLX for everything but the shifter, XTR for the shifter..

what he says /¦\

always the best shifter you can afford, slx everything else.

I’ve got the SLX with 32x 11-42, superb stuff, I love it.

Shimano sell 11-46 XT Cassettes, would imagine both XT & SLX are compatible as they’re basically the same product in slightly different materials

Is it possible for you to fit Sram GX cassette and XD freehub?

I’d go for that with the XT shifter and either the XT or SLX rear mech.

SLX rear mech will shift up to 46t.

What the other have said, slx for everything except the shifter, go XTR and get an 11-46 xt cassette

as above, but looking on CRB for m7000 vs m8000, the slx aint that much cheaper

derailleur £45 vs £56
cassette £50 vs £60
shifter £27 vs £34

so £28 more. or £122 vs £150 not even a round of beers for a few mates

so £28 more. or £122 vs £150 not even a round of beers for a few mates

bloody southerner 😆

I couldn’t wait for stock of SLX and went XT. Wish I’d waited for SLX, shifter is horrible.

If you’re doing a lot of flat riding a 30t ring might be a bit low.

I did SLX 11spd and a 11spd XT shifter. Really pleased with it – works a treat and the shifter works well.

Ooooh, new bike time 🙂

Whatever you do, don’t buy XT M8000 brakes – unless you like playing ‘guess the bite point’ – even when Shimano have ‘fixed’ them. You might get lucky and have a set that are OK but I wouldn’t take the risk.

the XT 1 x 11 shifter feels a little bit clunky, no idea what SLX or XTR feels like, GX shifter I have now feels much smoother and requires less effort.

Right now, 11spd SLX is shiny and new, and if you’re buying online from the usual suspects, the discounts aren’t really worth it IMHO – the price difference between XT and SLX isn’t huge. I’d be leaning towards XT for the minimal price difference. This may change over the coming months.

The exception to this is cranks – as the chainrings have an exciting new tooth profile (see this article here). The 1x SLX crank has launched with the new tooth profile, and whilst it is now available for XT, there’s going to be a whole bunch of existing stock of XT floating around – so you might get the new style chainring or you may not. Right now, I’d be tempted to go for SLX cranks, but this is also likely to change over the coming months.

Cheers for help people. Only other I don’t know which I just noticed whilst looking at specs what’s the difference between cage lengths do I need medium, long etc

A medium will probably do it, I think long cage mechs are only required for double and triple setups these days. To work it out, you’ll need to know the “capacity” of the mech, and the cassette you’re planning to use. Subtract the smallest sprocket from the largest (e.g. 40-11=29), if this is lower than the capacity of the mech, then you’re all good. You should probably also check that the biggest sprocket is smaller than the “max sprocket” too, of course… Worth noting that the numbers published by Shimano tend to be a little conservative.

Hopkinsgm
If you’ve already got an XT chainset and want the DCE chainring, you could replace with the SLX chainring for £24
http://www.freeborn.co.uk/shimano-sm-crm70-single-chainring-for-slx-m7000-32t

Indeed you could, but my reply was in response to the OP, who was asking about buying new components and whether it was worth spending the extra on XT over SLX

So looking at

Slx cassette 11-42t
Slx crank
Slx mech
Xt shifter

Any recommendations on chain ring if not shimano.

Or just buy group set Slx and wait a bit few weeks I think for stock

I’ve got an xtr shifter ready to fit. Not clear what the differences are to Katie’s XT – externally it looks the same other than a carbon lever. Wouldn’t be surprised if that was the only difference…….

I have a oneup http://int.oneupcomponents.com/products/xt-m8000-chainrings chainring on my XT M8000 cranks. Been faultless thus far.

The superstar M8000 chainrings are reduced to 19.99 the the moment.