Me and Mrs B fancy increasing the range of our gearing. I am currently running 1×10 Shimano with 11-40 cassette and a 10sp shifter and 11sp xt medium clutch mech.
Mrs B is 1×11, running 1×11 Shimano 11-42 cassette, an xtr 11sp shifter and an 11sp xt medium cage clutch mech.

It seems for 500%, a 10-50 cassette, its sram xd, so that means gx or x0 cassette? I believe nx cassette works on shimano splines and gives 11-50 max range?
So if i go 10-50 gx, will any shimano shifter/mech combos work? Or am i better staying all in house and buying all sram? If so, whats the best value? I dont mind spending on items that last well, rather than being cheap and wearing out in short order.
Any recommendations for combos or places to buy greatly received.
Ian

The SRAM Eagle cassettes are 12spd so you will probably need new derailleurs and shifters. At this point you’ll probably be best going full SRAM. I’ve never had SRAM on my bikes but one review on bikepacking.com reckoned the best bang for buck was Eagle GX but with XO derailleur.

Sunrace do 11-50T 11spd cassettes. You’ll need to check that your derailleur(s) has the range for this. No doubt someone has got it to work.

Edit: this cassette – https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/sunrace-mx80-11-speed-cassette/rp-prod174288 from the comments it seems that it works with medium cage XT M8000 derailleurs

Slx 12s mech and shifter on GX cassette and chain is a combination I will happily recommend to anyone.

Is having a 10t that important to you?
As you could run a Sunrace 11-46 10 speed and 11-50 11 speed both with the addition of a rear derailleur extender off eBay for < £5 each.
Save buying whole new set up including new free hubs for each bike.

Ok…i will read some more.
Thanks

Don’t forget the Sunrace cassettes op.

Lots of speeds and big ranges and work on Shimano freehub.

Large ranges in 10 and 11 speed for instance.

Worth having a play on http://gear-calculator.com/ to see what works for you. Looking at the 11spd XT 11-42T if you went to the 11-50T it looks like there’s bigger jumps around the 15-21T are to spread things out a bit – the XT goes 15 – 17 – 19 – 21 while the Sunrace goes 15 – 18 – 21. Eagle goes 14 – 16 – 18 – 21 BTW.

Garbaruk 11-50T shimano or 10-50T sram XD
Expensive but lasting well so far.
All of ours are like your wifes setup; 11 speed XTR shifter, XT mech.

+1 for the Garbaruk 10-50 11 speed. Changed my wife’s XX1 11 speed 10-42 to one of these as we have lots of short but very steep hills around. Shifting is great and the cassette is a work of art, and the large cog matches the red on her bike. Note you will need to change the derailleur cage to accommodate the larger range; Garbaruk sell kits with the cassette and cage together.

I went to 11s 11-46 staying with shimano. The bits are relatively cheap if you’re having to replace the cassette anyway. I don’t have any fundamental objections to SRAM, I just didn’t want to spend quite so much money right now.

You can also go 11 speed 500+% range with the E13 Trs 9-46 cassette, that need an xd driver though.

This could get messy, but here goes.

I’ve got 1×10 on a bike, with std shimano freehub and 11-46 Sunrace cassette.
Shifter is Saint 10sp and is probably my favourite shifter out of all I’ve had / used.
Works well with an XT medium cage rear mech – but clearance into the big sprocket needs checking on every different frame. Probably as well getting an extender thing as mentioned above.

Also got 1 x 11 with XT 11 sp shifter and Sunrace 11-50 cassette.
Doesn’t shift quite as smooth as the above, in particular the middle to low section of the block needs the occasional drop two and back one to get it into gear smoothly.

Finally went 1 x 12 on the main bike with Eagle X01 and an XD freehub. Gears work perfectly as I’d expect with brand new complete groupset however the Sram shifter is not the most ergonomic to use after a Shimano one. Some digging and advice late I swapped the shifter for XTR 12sp, which took some fiddling to get right. Now it shifts crisply and hasn’t missed or jumped a change over the whole block.

All the above use a 30T single front ring on various cranksets.

I went with Garbaruk as well – also bought their extended cage to fit my mech – as above cassette wearing well and no shift issues or gaps in the gearign that are noticeable.

If i go Garbaruk 11sp, will i need a mech with the really long cage, or does their accompanying new cage mean it can fit a middle sized cage?
Thanks