My 10 favourite things about new Shimano XTR Di2

GS is the medium cage for 9-45
SGS is long cage for 10-51

GS cage has my attention for a road cassette

I’m loving the idea of a short cage mech. 45t is plenty big enough for both my hardtail and my ebike and as the ebike is a mullet the extra clearance would be appreciated.

Would the 9-45 cassette fit on an existing microspline hub, or have they changed that as well?

Definitely interested in that and the short cage mech for the bikepark bike.

@Sharkattack it'll fit existing Microspline yes but uses a different locking array and thus new tool required IIRC.

Worse looking xtr chainset to date though, and trying to copy SRAM stealth style brakes has made a mess of the brake levers. There's too much aping of SRAM design language throughout (a negative). As well as it might function, xtr should be a thing of beauty, which this isn't!

£600 mechs, half the forum with £50k in Premium bonds, still no-one can afford to watch WCDH 😀

I love this place 🙂

Maybe they do listen!
Been asking for a 9-45t cassette & shorter cage mech since the move to 1x and XD / microspline.
Now for the XT version.

I know prices have risen but this is crazy. A new XTR cassette cost more than I paid for my first MTB - a Kona Lavadome in 1990. I don't know that I can afford to go riding any more.

Im assuming the xt version will be out next year?

9-45 with the short cage mech seems like the real benefit here as much as Id love to go wireless a mechanical version of that would be the one with a price thats justifiable for me

Any ideas on when the lower tier stuff will be released?

(XT will be sooner than you think.)

@one_bad_mofo you don't have to buy XTR, much like you didn't back in 1990. And the 2025 era Deore/CUES stuff is way better than 1990 XTR was!

@Sharkatack you can see the new lockring/cassette layout in the 'gallery' of pics above btw.

Pedant alert, M900 XTR didn't arrive until 1992.

Like the idea of the shorter mech and prefer Shimano to Sram so may actually check out wireless in the future.

@Ben Haworth thanks for that, do you know if it's just XTR, XT and Deore or is SLX slotting in there too?

I really hope the XT version of the rear mech is better looking than this. I'm not sure I could bring myself to attach that to my bike, which is a shame as I've been waiting for Shimano to catch up.

It’s a shame you haven’t had a test sample to ride given many of the other websites and tube influencer crowd have had it for months

Init. I rode it for two days back in February 🙂 Anyway, should hopefully be getting short cage, 4pots & mullet setup soonish.

So as an XTR fan boy I'm loving the new drivetrain, could you clarify if the new crankset is EP801 compatible, I'm guessing not.
I have to say that I won't be swapping out my current XTR brakes on my bikes for the new design, they didn't need the SRAM look, the current models are a thing of beauty unlike the redesign.

@Ben_Haworth do you know if there's and SLX version coming?

Insert 'Zipper-Mouth Face' emoji here.

I'm Ben_Haworth and so is my wife

It's like Benji is having some kind of Gollum/Smeagol back and forth about a drive train