Shimano XT Linkglide – Real world experience…?

Looking for some real world experience on M8130 XT Linkglide now it has been out there in the wild for some time now…

I’m just building a new bike for my GF, it needs a 1x drivetrain… I have 2 choices… Spend money on something suitable for her bike, or port the very nearly new 1×11 Deore setup with 11-51 cassette off my eBike (whilst it’s still in good condition, which I appreciate it most likely won’t be soon) and upgrade my eBike to XT Linkglide…

So real world experiences…? Is it significantly more durable? Does it still feel like you’d expect XT to feel in use…? I know it only has the single click upshift rather than double of other XT groupsets (not an issue for me), but does it still have a multi shift on the downshift or have they made it single click only on the down like SRAM have done with their designated eBike shifters?

The guy on the Path Less Pedaled had cover it I think, as has one of the kit writers on NSMB. They might be worth a look.

It’s two click upshift (easier), single click downshift (faster).

I think I’m an almost worst case scenario (a lot of short mixed road/offroad commutes, turbo, single-speeder) for cassette wear – I used to get 600 miles of good behaviour and another 600 miles of bad (and worse) behaviour out of an SLX 11 cassette. Last cassette I got 1500 miles of good behaviour out of LinkGlide and then it was dead. Lots of wet lube but no cleaning.

I’m now cleaning the chain as well as lubing and will see if that lasts any better. It feels a lot nicer shifting under power, especially after 1000 miles on one cassette.

My old stuff was XT bar the cassette and I didn’t notice LinkGlide feeling worse – often a bit slower to shift but far less of a bang. I’m now on the 10 speed cassette which is cheaper and lighter as I hardly ever used the biggest sprocket before.

I used to swap between XT and GX Eagle on my two bikes and found the lack of multishift on GX Eagle quite annoying. Nowadays I don’t have a shifter on the other bike so don’t notice not being able to bang through the cassette so fast.

On a e bike the linkglide is excellent for changing under power up or down, wear is ok so far with only a chain reaching its limit for me at 500 miles (I’m 120kg)

on my other bikes I run conventional hyperglide which shifts quicker and smoother as you can soft pedal to assist the change.

id switch the deore over and enjoy the linkglide benefits on the e bike

Ok cheers guys. Ordered it…

On paper it makes a lot more sense to me for my eBike, hopefully that’ll transpire in the real world too… ??

My issue with drivetrains isn’t wear anymore, it seems to be bending the derailleur on what’s feels like every other ride.

Is linkglide supposed to be more durable in that respect? Or just I’m terms of wear?

It looks/feels a bit sturdier and it’s 10% heavier – but I’ve only broken two mechs in my riding life and both of those were Zee mechs imploding in thick mud. (I wonder if riding big flat pedals with my feet fairly outboard means I leave more room for the mech vs obstacles?)

My issue with drivetrains isn’t wear anymore, it seems to be bending the derailleur on what’s feels like every other ride.

If we’re talking 12spd Shimano, then I feel your pain… Suffered this a few times now, only once on my own bike, bending a £90 derailleur every other ride was getting damned expensive!

Deore 11spd seems to have been a fair bit tougher in this respect, and I’m hoping 11spd XT Linkglide will be tougher still…

Otherwise it’ll be back to expensive, but nigh on indestructible, SRAM 12spd for me (which I was really hoping to avoid on a full power eBike as I really don’t need 520% range nor the expense)…

Which cassette have you gone with? I had the original super heavy 11 speed one, which I think has been replaced by something lighter:

“ The newer CS-LG700 cassette sheds 170 grams for a total weight of 609 grams. This is much better compared to the juggernaut CS-LG600 cassette that comes in at 780 grams”

And now I’ve got the LG400-10 which is much lighter and cheaper but missing the ~50 tooth sprocket.

My xt linkglide mech and shifter have been fine, had it since February on full power unrestricted ebike.

Do the more expensive linkglide cassettes have a better surface treatment? I’ve got 8 months out of my LG400 10spd running two chains and it’s starting to slip on the smaller cogs, which is OK wear IMO.  I was going through 12spd deore in 4 weeks before I got linkglide.

Think the XT cassettes also have replaceable smaller cogs

Which cassette have you gone with?

I don’t even think the LG600 cassette is available any more. I just got my mate to order a full group off Madison and it’s coming with the LG700 cassette…

I’ve got 8 months out of my LG400 10spd running two chains and it’s starting to slip on the smaller cogs, which is OK wear IMO.  I was going through 12spd deore in 4 weeks before I got linkglide.

4 weeks?!?!

I have a feeling Linkglide will last me a very long time!

Think the XT cassettes also have replaceable smaller cogs

They do, the 11/13/15 cogs are available separately… Won’t be an issue for me though, even on an eBike I’ll be wearing cogs 3/4/5 more than I will 9/10/11…

“Do the more expensive linkglide cassettes have a better surface treatment? I’ve got 8 months out of my LG400 10spd running two chains and it’s starting to slip on the smaller cogs, which is OK wear IMO.  I was going through 12spd deore in 4 weeks before I got linkglide.”

I don’t think they do. However I am wondering about the wear benefits of more expensive hard chrome chains like Eagle XO (you can use a 12 speed chain on 11 speed), so I’ve bought one to try with the next cassette. My bikes are restricted so the motor doesn’t get to put as much wear into the smaller sprockets as I’m doing most of the work pedalling it past the limiter.

Although the smaller sprockets are theoretically replaceable on some of the LinkGlide cassettes, whenever I’ve looked to buy them I’ve found none in stock anywhere – vapourware…

If we’re talking 12spd Shimano, then I feel your pain…

Have been so so many mechs Shimano 12 speed. I completely destroyed two in two days with BasqueMTB last year but it doesn’t seem to need much of a knock to me and they never shift properly again.

Mboy
Free Member

If we’re talking 12spd Shimano, then I feel your pain…

Yeah, the pain is real. 12sp Shimano indeed.

b33k34
Full Member

it doesn’t seem to need much of a knock to me and they never shift properly again.

I’ve only had 12 speed for the last 2 years and have gone through 4 derailleurs.

Previous to that, the last mech I killed was circa 2016 and it was my own fault for sizing the chain incorrectly. Cased a gap, bottomed hard and snapped the (9sp) mech in half.

(I didn’t realise it was because the chain was too short and did exactly the same thing woth a new mech the following week but we won’t talk about that). I used to throw mech away because I’d worn them out. I’m not even wearing the jockey wheels on 12sp before they die.

Of the 4 12sp I’ve killed, 2 of them bent so badly that they got dragged into the wheel. One of which snapped clean in half after breaking the hanger and getting trapped between the spoke and chainstay.

The other 2 bent somewhere and despite replacing the cages, never shifted properly again.

None of these were after big impacts.

The one which snapped in half was a noticeable (low speed, clumsy) smack against a rock. I knew I’d hit it. The rest, I didn’t even notice I’d hit anything. They just seem to bend if you go near a rock.

I’m not riding particularly hard or fast. It’s a shame because the 12sp shifts far better than anything else I’ve ever tried but it’s starting to get expensive now.

Of the 4 12sp I’ve killed, 2 of them bent so badly that they got dragged into the wheel. One of which snapped clean in half

that sounds very familiar happened to both of my Spain. First, I knew what I had hit the second there was nothing there