Unless someone knows a cheaper source (I am all ears…) they are £414 and £315 respectively at CRC after BC discount…

I normally stick to SLX but is there a weight difference ?

I assume functionality and durability is the same.

What puts me off SLX is the faff around having to sell the CL rotors and buy 6-bolt rotors, or is that an excuse to go for the added XT bling ?

£269 and find a deal on brakes?
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/sram-gx-11-speed-groupset/rp-prod137570

Dunno or care about weight, but i have one bike with slx shifters and one with xt, the xt shifters definitely feel (a little) better, slightly more positive action.
Bling is a good enough reason on it’s own though, surely?
If an extra hundred notes isn’t gonna hurt you, then go for it.
If you routinely rip mechs off in rock gardens, maybe slx will be just as good.
You pays your money etc . .

Get SLX shifter & mech, GX cassette & chain. GX cassette much lighter than XT

Go the whole way, the GX is the proper redesigned SRAM mech that has the up down rather than diagonal movement which makes for better chain retention (The SRAM stuff started out as a DH/Gravity project but ended up as the 11sp stuff. 2 years into GX and it just works. Shimano are not making light cassettes yet.

GX is well good

Doesn’t the SLX chainset have the newer think/thin chainring, whereas the XT doesn’t?

Either way – the SLX cranks lose their graphics within seconds. A real shame as the 10 speed ones were super durable.

I’ve just upgraded to XT M8000 1X11. I wanted to go with a SRAM GX setup as the gear ratios are better for the riding I do but I couldn’t get hold of an XD driver for my wheelset and didn’t want to buy a new rear wheel as I’m currently riding a 26″ frame and am planning on buying a new bike (either 27.5 or 29) later in the year.

I went XT M8000 on the shifter, RD, cassette and went for the Ultegra/XT chain. I already have a working pair of Deore brakes and SLX rotors so didn’t need those, and I also wanted to reuse my old 3X9 speen chainset so didn’t need the chainset. Adding a Hope N/W chainring and KMC quick links brought the package up to £230 from Wiggle with next day delivery. The XT stuff was a couple of quid more than the SLX M7000 so wasn’t really much in it.

Fitted it all myself. Performance is great, no issues with chain drop on back-pedalling in the largest sprockets (although the 11t and 13t rub slightly when back-pedalling).

XT is nice, I wouldn’t say saving 40g’s on a cassette is worth the effort if you’ve got the outlay of an XD driver also.

I assume functionality and durability is the same.

Certainly on the old 10 speed the SLX cranks are more durable and slightly heavier.

The SLX have pedal inserts but the XT mounts directly into threaded alloy.

Ah thx everyone – didn’t think of SRAM as I though their rear mechs stuck out too much – but why not ? Not sure what an XD drive is as I was going to buy basic Mavic Crossrides, not sure they would be adaptable.

Any decent new wheels (not Shimano) will come with XD as an option mavic certainly do

Ok thanks – That GX group works out at £262 after discount once you’ve added the BB. SRAM brakes seem expensive at around £150 with rotors – so it is basically the same price as XT when comparing like for like.
Ummmm… nothing against SRAM and that would add a 10-sprocket rather than 11 (very little benefit off-road) but Shimano has a tendency to work bloody well…
Hold on it’s £40 for XD drive on the Mavics (thanks Mike!)
I could get a Heist XD and the pair would be £216 vs £190 for the XD equipped Mavics as the Easton is a better/wider wheel but typically CRC do not have the matching front wheel in 15mm 100 27.5…
So I can’t go for SRAM as either more expensive than XT or CRC don’t have the right front wheel…arggghhh…

The other benefit of the XT group is that is comes in my preferred front brake / left hand combo out of the box.

Reports on the new SRAM brakes are very good, the GX gets better reports than the Shimano from what I hear, the 10t means you increase the range. Or you could put other brakes on it. Up to you, from what I see Shimano has half heartedly got into 1x.

Fair comments Mike although the reviews on XT are not too shabby either.
The 10t is great for some but is of next to zero value for me, currently running 32t on a 11/36 cassette and while I am occasionally missing an easier climbing gear, I am not missing anything at the other end.

I have been using Shimano 1x for exactly 10 years so I’d disagree they’re half hearted : I didn’t give them a choice by fitting a 30t homebrewed ring on my XTR M960 cranks though ! (I actually rode that very bike last weekend at Whyteways).

I am going to go for XT in the end, I have no reason to shy away from what works well and is compatible / simple. I love the SRAM cassette though !

Wiggle are cheaper than CRC for XT, even taking into account the BC discount.
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/shimano-deore-xt-m8000-11-speed-groupset-1×11/

Correct but that’s without the rotors so that equals out.

Ended up going for XT. For clarity the cranks have the threaded steel sleeves for the pedals like SLX and the Ring have Shimano’s own chain retention profile whatever it’s called, like SLX. It might be a late effort but I didn’t it 3 years ago so that’s OK ;-). There doesn’t seem to be anything half hearted about this stuff either tbh so far.

Half hearted is s little strong, but when Shimano XT is comparable to the group nearly at the bottom of SRAM’s 1×11 range you can see where the thought comes from. They really don’t seem to have tried very hard.

Have XT M8000 and at first the shifting was awful, inaccurate, overly heavy and just generally unpleasant. Got used to it a bit now and i’m getting the hang of it.

The old slx i had on the other hand was gorgeous,light accurate and never missed a beat. Although i imagine new SLX will be very similar in feel to new XT.

As for the M8000 brakes – brilliant is all i have to say, which is not what some reviews will have you believe…

One month on. Fitted the XT8000 groupset to the new bike (Meta AM HT) – as highlighted by others shift quality is surprisingly poor even after 500 miles or so. The amount of effort is too high and there is no crispiness to the shift. Very agricultural, not natural or telepathic compared to 9 speed XT, it’s like going down 3 levels of quality. Quite disappointed.

And now the indexing has gone out and it just doesn’t shift in the middle of the cassette, just OK at the extremes as if I had an old cable.

I am praying that both issues are due to using a (full length) Clarks outer cable rather than a SP41. Will buy one of these tomorrow and report back.

Brakes also disappointing – despite careful bleeding, the lever has gone soft again.

I am going to have to eat humble pie and admit I wish I had listen to those suggesting SRAM, including my LBS.

Not sure how a company like Shimano can drop such a bollock -I probably chose it out of loyalty – my mistake.

At least I should have gone for SLX (identical in reality), if I have to have an entry lever Deore group, I might as well pay less for it.

Some of the brakes have been faulty along the way, remember you have warranty on them.

Your shifting should be lovely and light with a gentle click in the lever, mine certainly is! Has been for a good year now too with no cable changes. Have you wound the clutch on too hard? If that’s too high the whole system binds up giving the symptoms you describe.

As for the brakes, warranty them. I’m in the process of switching from Shimano brakes on both bikes due to their unreliability. My XT785’s are on their second full rear and third front lever, the Deores are on their second front caliper.

For a bit more balance I have just fitted m8000 shifter and mech with a SRAM GX cassette. I was a bit worried about shift quality after reading some reports but I find it perfect, light and positive. This is compared to 10 speed XT with Rad cage and OneUp expander

I’m going through this same process right now.

Yesterday, after looking at the pros and cons, I decided that GX is both lighter and cheaper than XT, and my riding mate has run it for a good couple of years and has no complaints in respect of durability and performance.

As has already been said GX is near as damn it the bottom of the SRAM 1x pile, but it’s better than shimanos latest flagship trail group. Seems like they’re getting their asses handed to them at the moment.

I’ve seen reports that the poor shifting is down to cable-routing…

I suggest keeping the mech pivots lubed and sample tensions on the clutch…

I had a problem with shifting on my Orbea. Compared to the same XT shifters and mechs on my Pact the rear was just taking too much effort. I replaced the cable (inner and outer) and it’s now as crisp as I’d expect.

I really like XT, I know that Shimano seem to have dropped the ball lately compared to SRAM but XT stuff just works and keeps working seemingly forever. SLX is probably exactly the same but with a slightly different finish (note: citation probably needed).

Both of my full suss bikes came with SRAM 2×10 and now have XT 1×11.

As for Shimano brakes, I’ve previous generation XT brakes which are a good few years old now. They stop beautifully and are easy to bleed. I’m expecting a catastrophic failure of both units any day now, but I’ve a set of Hope Tech brakes on standby.

Sadly, my XT just doesn’t work as it should or as a 1990’s STX-RC used to work.

How do I adjust the clutch ?

Just visited my LBS and spoke to the “chief mechanic” – they build high end bikes all day long and in their experience of M8000 the issue is inconsistency between a mech or shifter and another – in other words it has become a lottery. It either works well or not at all and they say mine is terrible despite being well set up. Outer cable change won’t help.

They do not fit it any longer for that reason unless people insist – the default choice is SRAM, however cheap.

I must be dreaming this, surely.

I wonder which gives them the best margin?

I’d question the skills of a bike mechanic that couldn’t get a Shimano XT groupset working properly. As I said, installing a new inner and outer to the rear mech transformed mine.

Clarks outer is in my experience quite short lived, it seems to grow and lose rigidity, giving spongy shifting.

Cheers Jim – I think this is the first (and cheap!) step.

Scotroutes, I hope you’re right and that there is a lack of impartiality there.

The XT shifter on my new Orange Four is not crisp at all and an effort to use. Thought it was because it was new but sounds like it might just be the shifter!

Fit Shimano cables and it’ll work. I’d use a different mechanic as he’s spouting pish.

I have two bikes and the shifting was poorer on one and great on the other, so I swapped everything over between bikes as I wanted the main bike to have the best shifting. It was exactly the same after – as far as I can work out the tab on the dropout is much further round on the bike with poorer shifting, possibly meaning the mech is having to do a lot more work against its own springs. Quite odd.

nickfrog – Member

How do I adjust the clutch ?

There’s a rubber cap under the body casing where the clutch on/off lever is, pick that off, then shove a 2mm allen key in til it engages (it’s a bit fiddly) then wind it out in 1/4 turns ans see how it feels. Just don’t go too loose or you’ll suffer dropped chains.

Just fitted new XT 1×11 to my new Stage 5 and its really sharp and easy shifting in comparison to my old 10 spd XT.

There’s a rubber cap under the body casing where the clutch on/off lever is, pick that off, then shove a 2mm allen key in til it engages (it’s a bit fiddly) then wind it out in 1/4 turns ans see how it feels. Just don’t go too loose or you’ll suffer dropped chains.

Thanks so much – I actually did that last night – loosening the clutch didn’t help BUT tightening it helped as in I eventually got decent indexing and a working shift – still incredibly harsh at the shifter but at least it’s working – not sure if this was due to clutch adjustment – this all does point to too much friction and the wrong outer for the job, particularly with full length so I will get the SP41 outer soonish (shop are out of stock…).

Not sure what cable mine is (i’ll have a look tonight) but it’s all brand new, shifter, cable, mech, etc and it felt horrid at first (still not great).

I also find that the tension needs adjusting every so often too…

How is yours routed btw? Interested to see how much improvement your new cable will make too…