It has taken a little longer than we expected but there are now more 12-speed options available than ever before! The past few weeks have seen SRAM introduce the NX Eagle 12-speed groupset. Officially the most affordable 12-speed drivetrain on the market and a pretty good one by all accounts too.
Only last month we got to see Shimano’s XTR 12-speed in the flesh, and while that extra gear is only currently available to users of the top of the range Japanese drivetrain, we can’t for a moment believe the technology won’t trickle down to XT, SLX and even further.
E*13 recently got in on the fun with an innovative retrofit upgrade that replaces the internals of SRAM 11-speed shifter to make it 12-speed friendly, although we do think they missed a trick not releasing a 13-speed cassette and shifter instead.
Oh, and don’t forget SunRace who quietly rolled out its own 12-speed drivetrain option a few months back.
Although 12-speed is everywhere now, we know that not everyone is rocking that extra gear and many of you might now be planning an upgrade, the question is, “How will you convert to 12-speed?”.
[poll id=”760″]
Cast your vote in the poll above and feel free to enter the comments section below to explain how the front derailleur is still alive and kicking that 12-speed is for people who can’t climb.
Comments (18)
Comments Closed
I already have Pinion P1.12 doesn’t appear to be an option?
I just shelled out on a new 11sp cassette and chain. I got 3 years out of the last one so I don’t plan to change anything for at least 3 years.
7sp was plenty when I started.
Have XO1 on my new Blur (it came with it), but as soon as the new XTR 12 speed is available I’m changing as I prefer shimano
Am i the only one thinking “I’ll eventually buy a sram eagle setup (any level)” is missing?
dangeourbrain you aren’t the only one… I bought the groupset and a freehub..
Where is the I’m waiting 2 months for 14 speed option? 🙂
There are some obvious answers missing here… Was this poll paid research for Shimano or Madison?
How long before they are up to 20 speed, to match my current set up?
I’m building a new bike now – will be 11 speed – I currently have 10 speed with 42 big cog, run 30 front in winter, 34 in summer. So only interesting 12 speed gearing I’ve seen is the 11 cog version of new XTR!
I am deeply committed to buying complete bikes these days. It helps my peace of mind. I’ll go 12-speed if that’s what’s on the next bike I buy, whenever that is.
I’ll go eagle but this option is missing from the poll. I’m currently running sram nx with a sunrace mx8 11-46 cassette.
Why is it missing such an obvious option?
No interest in extra gears, 9 was enough – range is what concerns me.
Finally got enough range to drop the front mech with SRAM 10×42
Any more range would be redundant and make me weaker and slower
Not to mention those 50t cassettes look ridiculous – on my 26 in wheels I reckon the cage would be dragging along the floor!
I have only got 11spd because I bought a road bike with it already fitted. My mtbs were built up from frames with what I had to hand so are 9-HT and 10-FS. I can’t see me upgrading voluntarily but recently have noticed 9spd stuff becoming rarer and more expensive if you want even mildly higher end kit.
The time has come to buy an ebike! I realise this doesn’t absolve you from the ‘how many speeds’ debate but at least electric legs will do the work for you
I think it’s one to leave until I buy a new bike, I’m still ‘only’ using 1×10 on my MTB which is still working just fine, I might look at a wider range (SunRace?) cassette when I wear out the current one but otherwise 12 speed can wait until I buy a new bike, I’d be interested to see if NX Eagle makes it’s way onto the next iteration of the Calibre Bossnut or other similar ~£1K “key price point” bikes.
The main thing I like about NX is that it continues to use the old HG format freehub body, so along with Sunrace’s products, plenty of older hubs continue to be perfectly viable for use with more modern groupsets.
It is all just insane. Keep on adding gears in the back, and making everything ever more finicky.
As a mechanic, I hate this shit. Gear parts get more expensive and are less fault tolerant with every added sprocket.
Ill be happily riding my 1×9 gears when the rest are lamenting how easily their 15 gears go out of whack if the mech hanger gets bent a little.
On the other hand, if someone made a 9-speed derailleur with a clutch and a cassette with, lets say, 11-46 range, I would be handing out money instantly. I do not need more gears, and I very rarely need more spread either. At the moment my 29″ bike has 11-36 x 30 teeth, and my 26″ bike has 11-36 with 32 teeth, and that is usually perfect. I can get up all the hills in my area, and the 29er will go around 35 km/h at 90 cadence. All that extra range and gears is just completely unnecessary, except for the marketing department.
So I run the SRAM GX eagle on one bike and shimano xt 11-46 11 speed on the other, both with a 32T chainring. To be honest the 11 speed seems to me the better choice. I rarely – if ever – use the 50T dinner plate and the mech cage on the eagle is ridiculously long meaning it’s really exposed to strikes from logs or rocks and the jockey wheel sucks up foliage then winds it tightly in to the drivetrain. takes ages to clean it out. So I think yes the front mech is dead but actually the 11speed setup seems to be the optimal mechanical design to deliver decent range in a robust package.
For me 1×12 but closer ratio would make me up grade.
11-40 one one bike and 10-42 on an other
Overall rage is fine but the jumps less so