You can pick up all the bits bar a chainring and cranks for about £260 now which is pretty doable. But before I jump in I was just wondering about individual parts difference…

Cassette is a no-brainer for me, price difference is big enough to not worry about grams, and I’m sure it’ll shift fine.
Mech I think I’ll go GX, just because it’s reasonably likely to get busted off, and I always feel the shifter is the brain.

But shifter, hmm. I gather it’s bushing’d not bearing’d and has more cast parts but mostly it’s feel that I wonder about- my lovely Saint 10 speed isn’t a higher quality part than XTR but it shifts so much nicer, CLUNK CLUNK. Anyone got any experience of the 3 shifter options?

XX1 and GX both weigh the same, but XX1 is a lot crisper shifting.
Whether that’s worth the £100 price difference is down to you!

Yes, I was just about to buy a new cassette and chain for 11sp and saw the £259 price for GX Eagle. Very tempting.

I don’t know about eagle, but my tests have shown no real difference between X-1 and XX1 shifter feel. I was just going to stick with GX for £24 and see how I got on.

@Adam, can I ask, how would you sum up “crisper”? I like chunky, positive bolt action shifts, I always hated Shimano’s feedbackless broken cable approach (9 speed SRAM was kind of crap but it felt great to me, Shimano was higher quality but it felt like jelly)…

Really I just want everything to feel like Saint 10 speed 😆

My GX shifter I had on the spectral was a joy Northy, muchly preferred to my current XT 8000. Has that lovely agricultural ‘clunk’ that SRAM used to have.

Omly downside is not having multiple gear changes in a single push, but it never bothered me tbh.

Really I just want everything to feel like Saint 10 speed

I wish Shimano would do an 11sp Saint 👿

Looking into the GX Eagle as replacement for the MiL’s 3×10 XTR setup, as she’s struggling with movement in her left thumb and finding it increasingly hard to shift with.

She doesn’t really want to spend huge bucks, but the GX cranks are a bit…sturdy. What other options are there in the same sort of price range that don’t entirely suck?

Anyone tried the different chains? My bike is full XX1 Eagle but I need to replace the chain and am unsure the XX1 is worth £60 when a GX is £25? Almost no difference in weight.

don’t forget you’ll need a new freehub at least to switch from shimano to sram.

don’t forget you’ll need a new freehub at least to switch from shimano to sram.

Fortunately, DT Swiss do a generic XX1 freehub adapter to swap for XD driver so it will take a standard eagle cassette including, presumably, the new GX one. It’s not cheap (about £70), but cheaper than new hubs! 🙂

daern – Member

She doesn’t really want to spend huge bucks, but the GX cranks are a bit…sturdy. What other options are there in the same sort of price range that don’t entirely suck?

Pretty sure she can just throw a ring on her current cranks?

Watching this thread as currently undergoing the same quandary

Pretty sure she can just throw a ring on her current cranks?

Probably, but a 3x to 1x conversion will probably look a bit naff on the bike :/ I’ll have a look into this though…

edit: Actually, it doesn’t look so daft:
http://forums.mtbr.com/drivetrain-shifters-derailleurs-cranks/xtr-m980-triple-conversion-1x-888186.html
(her’s is the XTR crankset half way down)

We went 1 X 11 using 30T NW and a XT triple. Works and looks fine.

I prefer older cranks for the simplicity of 104bcd chainrings.

New SLX crankarms are well-priced and pretty sweet looking though – using them on my new build.

I’m staying 1×11 though, bit concerned about the negative owner reports on Eagle.

The problem is that my MiL insists that she needs both her highest and lowest gears from her current 3x setup, despite much persuasion to the contrary and the only way to get that with 1x is a 10-50 :-/

I do have some concerns with the fickleness of SRAM Eagle though. I built my son’s M8000 XT 1×11 a month ago and just tightened the cable by hand while the chain was in the smallest sprocket. Much to my surprise it was nearly perfectly indexed, requiring perhaps a half turn adjustment to bring it perfectly true and, 1 month later, it’s still absolutely perfect.

I just don’t think GX Eagle will be close to this…

Leave her with a triple and fit a Gripshift for the front shifting .

Leave her with a triple and fit a Gripshift for the front shifting .

That would be worse, I’m sure. She has some arthritis in her hand and gripping tight would be as difficult (or more so) as pushing buttons on a shifter.

Fortunately, DT Swiss do a generic XX1 freehub adapter to swap for XD driver so it will take a standard eagle cassette including, presumably, the new GX one. It’s not cheap (about £70), but cheaper than new hubs

Huh? Do you just mean you can swap freehub bodies, or are they actually doing some crazy adapters?!

Huh? Do you just mean you can swap freehub bodies, or are they actually doing some crazy adapters?!

Bad wording from me. It’s this:
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/dt-swiss-sram-xx1-freehub-kit/rp-prod104590

I’m just converting from 2 x 10 to 1 x and was looking at eagle gx but with an xd driver it was north of £300.

Decided to go 1 x 11 with XT shifter and long cage mech, Sunrace 11-50 cassette and a sram X1 chain. With a new narrow wide chainring this was approx £190 all in. Picked the sunrace up for £65 delivered from athleteshop.

Fitted most of it, just waiting for the mech to turn up and then will be testing it out. Hoping it works well. The cassette is massive!

she doesn’t really want to spend huge bucks, but the GX cranks are a bit…sturdy.

Eh? They’re comparable to XT, if not a bit lighter.

XX1 and GX both weigh the same

You sure about that? I’m not sure about eagle, but on the 11 speed shifters the XX1 is 12 grams lighter due to having a carbon casing and shifter arm.

The other differences with XX1 is the long shifter arm is removable/adjustable to suit your preferred position in relation the the short clicky shifter stump.

Two rides in on XX1 Eagle and it works very well, shifts better than the frankly already excellent 11 speed XX1. Adjustment was very easy indeed – the new gap tool for B-tension is useful. Once fitted with limits and chain length sorted – I chanced on perfect tension! Result!

Why would you need new cranks? Surely it’s a ring at most?

Can’t fault my X01 Eagle setup so far, 1 year it’s still shifting as smooth as it did on day one. However if I were buying aftermarket and not using what came on the bike I’d go full GX with the exception of the shifter and chain. My understanding is the XX1 chain is leagues ahead of even X01, so I’d go for one of those in Black and an X01 shifter as they seem much smoother in action, should last longer and have the adjustable shifter paddle, which I’ve actually found really useful to really dial in the position just so.

Anyone fitted Eagle GX on bike with 92mm BB PF?
Are there spacers as per HT2 to adjust the chainline?
Looking at Evans for the groupset as seems decent price but cant see what front ring comes as standard.
What front ring size are people using for bikepacking as opposed to hooning?