"Some very impressive engineering to get the cassette down to £115."

mind you, i would love to see Shimano/SRAM/whoever accommodate peoples’ application as well as their budget.

in the same way as we have XT and Saint, depending on whether you’re an xc rider or Dh rider, why not offer race/tour/sunday-caff-run/cx roadie groupsets?

Because the use cases for those doesn’t really vary?

Possible exception of touring and CX, who will have different gearing requirements, and they have their specific options.

What would a “sunday-caff-run” groupset look like compared to race groupset?

Happens to an extent. Shimano do CX and “trekking” cranksets.

njee20 – Member

What would a “sunday-caff-run” groupset look like compared to race groupset?

from the top of my head:

racers get to keep their close-ratio (12-25) cassette, with a rear mech optimised to suit.

caff-runners might prefer a wider range (11-32?) cassette, with a rear mech optimised to suit.

caff-runners might still want something a little showy? (i do like sora, but the sti’s are a little plasticky)

cx’ers might like a bit more thought put in for mud-management…

cx’ers might like a clutch mech?

racers get to keep their close-ratio (12-25) cassette, with a rear mech optimised to suit.

caff-runners might prefer a wider range (11-32?) cassette, with a rear mech optimised to suit.

But that exists.

I’d agree if Shimano only offered 53/39 and 11-23 cassettes, but they do 50/34, 52/36 and 53/39 on virtually all their groupsets, plus extra options on Dura Ace. They do what… 8 different cassette options!? GS mechs, SS mechs. It’s an impressively modular system.

caff-runners might still want something a little showy?

What… like Dura Ace?

I said about ‘cross and touring, they do have their own options, clutch mech is about the only one I guess that could have some merit.

apologies for thinking out loud.

Not trying to shoot you down, just confused, it seems their road hierarchy is very clear to me?

Better mix-and-match of road and mtb groups would surely help folk construct their own?

Shimano XT 11-speed 11-40 or 11-42. £74.99 retail.

Fire in the hole!

Waiting for the SRAM fanboys to bring up weight, range, etc.

http://singletrackworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/shimano-2016-11-speed-xt/%5B/url%5D

Waiting for the SRAM fanboys to bring up weight, range, etc.

Not a fanboy, but they’re valid comments surely? Not that we know the weight on XT. Let’s not have three parallel threads though eh!?