The new NX 11-42 cassette will be Shimano freehub compatible. But it is a bit of a boat anchor. Seems that the only reason for SRAM’s freehub is to accomdate a 10 tooth small cog.

I prefer an 11-42 to a 10-42, which begs the question, will SRAM (or somebody) please produce a lightweight 11-42 in the style and weight of XX1 that will fit a Shimano freehub? XTR isn’t available in a 42, and XT is nowehere nearXX1 weight.

Sram want go away from xd freehub now. It is better engineering for a number of reasons.

Out of interest why do you prefer less range?
As far as xd goes:
You can’t gouge the free hub body
It’s easy to fit
Smallest gear restriction is gone.

Take a look at an xt and a sram cassette, they ha e made no effort to remove excess material, its just weight for no reason apart from it could cost in machine time to remove it.

I’m a spinner not a masher and don’t need the 10 tooth, but do need the 42 and prefer the more even spacing of the 11-42 gears.

I run XTR hubs on this particular bike and they aren’t XD compatible.

As you rightly say, even on XTR shimano have made very little attempt to shed weight, and the XX1 cassette is streets ahead in terms of weight.

Hence the original question. SRAM have proven with NX that they can make a HG compatible 11 speed cassette. Ijust wish that they would make an XX1 style version.

I’m a spinner not a masher and don’t need the 10 tooth, but do need the 42 and prefer the more even spacing of the 11-42 gears.

yes, yes, yes but – what you are missing is that dropping 1 tooth at the bottom end gives you the same range increase as adding 4 teeth at the top end. Consequently if you have a 10T cog you can drop from a 34 chainring to a 30 chainring and have virtually the same hardest gear as you had before…while giving you many more climbing gears to choose from.

34/11 = 3.1
30/10 = 3

Yes, yes, yes, but what you are missing is that I run XTR hubs which can’t be converted to XD (grrrrr!).

Were I starting from scratch I would go Shimano gears with an XD cassette.

Oh its just you said you didn’t need the 10 tooth…

Shimano gears with an XD cassette.

That’s what I use – best option entirely

That’s what I use – best option entirely

Running gx which honestly is streets ahead of my 10sp xt. Not sure why it’s a better option.

fair play – I have never actually run a sram mech, though I didn’t like the shifter feel compared to Shimano when I tried one out….and I know this is personal taste but I think SRAM mechs look a a bit fugly. They also seem rather pricy like for like with Shimano.

Also 10 speed Shimano was slightly rubbish – much stiffer shifting compared to 9 speed Shimano. They have improved with 11 speed though

So maybe I should have said “best setup for Shimano lovers who accept SRAM make the best cassettes”

Lol probably just what I would use… It’s amazing how many people who have it used things have such strong opinions

Very diplomatic!

Some people prefer Shimano shifting, others SRAM. I personally prefer Shimano and find SRAM a bit plasticky, but I do have to bow to SRAM’s superior cassette design. Hence the original point of the thread.

Sunrace make an 11-40 and an 11-42 11 speed cassette that is a bit lighter than the Shimano ones. Not much, but they’re not expensive either.

That new NX cassette is an absolute anchor. I’m guessing that the shifter will feel pretty cheap and crappy too. IME, lower range SRAM stuff feels nasty and that’s coming from a SRAM fanboy.

I prefer the ergonomics of their shifters as well as the clunky shift but their Type II mechs don’t seem to be as good as my Shimano clutch mechs. After 10 years of being a complete SRAM fan boy, I switched back to Shimano because I think their clutch mechs are better.