[Closed] 11 speed world. Recommend a cassette and chain

I was skeptical on the sunrace for ages (like compromised shifting) ... but stuck a Suntour 46 on for trancend Epic and its actually really good. I'd buy again, maybe even a 50...

Chains I use the cheapest SRAM 11 speed.(1130 I think).. Planet X were doing em at £8 a while ago so I bought a bunch... and I find the SRAM chains are better stopping the backpedal shift thing than KMC or shimano

I've gone to 42T with an XT rear mech but not sure if you can go to 46T with it. Shimano are somewhat conservative with their quoted largest sprocket size and you can usually go a couple of teeth larger. My wife has the SLX mech with a 46T sprocket but that isn't keeping the same mech which is what you want to do.

Someone will have used a Goat Link or similar and should be able to advise on whether that works.

Sunrace cassettes are fine, I've noticed no difference between them and Shimano. Never had any Sram derailleurs or cassettes.

I'm using a Sunrace 11-46 with an XTR rear mech with no issues. Shifting is spot on too!

Sunrace 11-46 working well for me on a medium cage XT mech, better than the Shimano in some ways as it doesn't drop the chain when backpedalling.  Always a fan of KMC chains.

Sunrace 11-46 for me with KMC chain and XT med cage mech. Re: the biggest size, you don't mention what cage length mech you're using at the moment, my personal experience with my XT med cage mech and the 11-50 cassette is that it would shift ok in the stand but couldn't cope with the chain growth on my full suss (a Cotic Rocket). Have since put it on a mate's hardtail with SLX med cage mech and it's fine. Therefore I would say if you have a hardtail and your mech is medium cage you can go up to 50t, Not sure about the long cage but as shimano only rate them to 42 IIRC, it may not work at all with anything bigger.

My wife has the SLX mech with a 46T sprocket but that isn’t keeping the same mech which is what you want to do.

There is no functional difference except the spring and materials... you can pull the cage off a M7000 and stick it on an M8000 or visa versa. If you stick them side by side you can see they are otherwise identical.

(Just a point of interest... older series I have a caliper that's half XT and half SLX... and the cranks are identical except the SLX has steel pedal inserts... Its hard to believe until you stick them side by side... as the way they are shaded is different but at least on that the only difference is lack of steel pedal inserts resulting in 25g or something saving.

@stevextc - I half suspected as much but since I hadn't tried the 11-46T on my bike (full suss) I wasn't certain - my wife's bike is a HT so there isn't the issue of chain growth.

I'm assuming that @davewalsh is using that setup on a full suss bike.

I went 28t on my XT M8000 cranks and 10—42 Sram cassette and chain with XT M8000 drivetrain. It's perfect for my riding.

https://www.shore-lines.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=275

@whitestone, all the faff with goat links is to get shimano 10s working with bigger cassettes (I run an XTZEE OneUp RadR Hope mech on my hard tail to get it working 10s with 42t cassette). Medium cage 11s XT and SLX mechs are designed to work with 46t and can be stretched to 50t on frames with minimum chain growth without modification.

@davewalsh - I've not had to use a Goat Link or similar. On my hardtail a 10spd medium cage XT mech copes fine with 11-40T and I suspect, but haven't tried it, that it'll be OK with a 42T max.

Both of my bikes are 11 speed XT with Sunrace cassettes (11-50 on the 29er, 11-46 on the 27.5), I tried one ride with an 11-46 XT cassette and hated the enormous gap between the two largest cogs.

The transmission does shift noticeably more sweetly with an XTR chain though.

Gx 11s cassettes are lighter and have a (marginally) bigger range than Shimano or sunrace 11-46. A little more expensive initially but they’re all steel and probably the hardest wearing cassettes I’ve ever used. It’s worth keeping on top of changing the chain early but sram chains are cheap, so I think over the time it evens out the same or cheaper.

That said, I’ve had good experience with the sunrace 10s stuff and would happily use their 11s cassettes.

Whitestone- I had an story 10s mech doing 11-42 without mods but the shifting was, shall we say, not great. A rad cage fixed that and subsequently moved across slx and zee and Deore as I wore out all my 10s kit.

Yeah I think GX 11sp are the best bang-for-buck cassettes - due to their long lifespan.

Will 10-42t do you if you maybe drop a size on the chainring?

I'm a huge fan of the 10-42 GX '1150' cassette.

If you already have the XD driver covered then it's pretty well a no brainer for me. It's probably the best £/g ratio out there in 11sp and as ^ just lasts and lasts.

Yeah I’d go 10-42 sram and then a 28t or 30t chainring. The GX level cassette is about £80 and completely steel and lasts ages. I’ve got one that’s 2.5 years old - I think it’s on it’s second chain and still going strong. Also looks nicer then the shimano 11-46 (appreciate this isn’t the most important thing).

Chain wise you can often get x1 for £20 so I tend to use those.

Chain, KMC.

Thanks for the tips. I've gone with a Sunrace 11-46 because they're just unbeatable at the price. £40 at Wiggle plus a KMC chain and a new customer discount code.

All the Sram equivalents seem to be twice the price. Don't want to spend too much as when I've got the spare cash I'll probably go Eagle anyway.

The sram equivalents will probably last twice as long - I’m 2.5 years into a gx level 11 speed cassette and still
going strong on one bike.....