Right I'm off to the desert for 6months (guess what i do!), anyway I've just stripped my Orange 5 SE and put every thing on an On One 456 Ti (very nice it is too) which I'll use for general riding and xc racing when I get back next year.
Anyway the 5 is having a revamp and will be my enduro racing bike/ all day in the mountains bike. Probably going to give Rock Shox a go Revs I expect as I had the usual stantion wear probs on the Talas now on the On One.
I'm fairly fit and don't really use the granny that much and more significantly will earn a fair amount of taxpayers money whilst eating desert dust with very little expenditure in the next 6months. Therfore expenditure on my one passion is not a real problem as long as the wife doesn't find out!

I like the the thought of going double up front but is XX just for the super lightweight boys xc racing or will it suit my enduro/AM/Alpine needs on the 5? I know it's not the lightest bike but it is extremely versatile. Or should I just get an XT/XTR groupset an save my hard earneds?

Basically if you could build the ultimate Orange 5 Spec would you XX or XTR?

XTR

xx if you want exclusivity, xtr if you want the best and not worry about it.

XTR

Have you seen the price of XX?? It's almost twice the price of XTR!

if you are going to the desert i'd imagine you have money(oil?)
But xx is freakin expensive xtr has far more bang for your buck
and tbh xx isnt really suited for that.

XX certainly isn't the only option for double set ups, but it is meant to be the dogs danglies. XTR is hardly a compromise.

Starting from scratch now, I'd get XX if I had the cash.

Check the compatibility on xx. I was under the impression that none of the xx drive train would work with anything else, even down to the chains. Could be bullshit though.

Well the chains are just the standard 10 speed road chains, so they won't work that well on any other MTB groupsets, although the weight weenies do often run 10 speed chains to save a couple of grammes!

Everything else is allegedly specific, but Specialized are running their triple crank with the groupset, claiming to use XX shifters, but I fail to see how they'd operate a triple set up, seems more likely they're running a LH X.0 and a RH XX.

Bruce, are you serious? I assume he's in the forces…

njee20 – Member

XX certainly isn't the only option for double set ups, but it is meant to be the dogs danglies. XTR is hardly a compromise.

Starting from scratch now, I'd get XX if I had the cash.

Will you not get it "at trade" or from a sponsor?

Well I'm tossing up what bike to get next year, but yes, whatever I get will almost certainly have XX! Sadly neither the Epic or the Top Fuel 9.9 (being the top 2 choices) are really specced how I want, and in this day and age swapping a few bits gets very expensive very fast, even at trade prices!

XX is a fair bit cheaper stateside, im in the process of buying some XX brakes, should be here within a week or two. The rest of my XX kit is arriving end of September from what im told.

From a conversation with Sram UK there not expecting XX until January at the earliest…

Depending on your "needs" as a group XX is a chunk lighter than XTR.

I reckon Spesh will get a 3-ring front shifter made pretty easy, SRAM already make them custom brakes and custom forks (reba 29er with spesh carbon crown and steerer).

Even spending someone else's money, I still want XTR (and XX brakes) for next year. Maybe one of those new Middleburn external-bb cranksets run as a 40/30 duo.

Actually ive seen that Spesh bike. It is indeed an XX trigger for the rear but an XO trigger for the front matted to an XTR front mech on a Spesh triple crank.

They're not really custom though Dougal, the brakes are just Elixir callipers with Juicy levers, and the fork is just Reba lowers with a Spesh CSU, none of the parts are unique, a triple XX shifter would be.

According to a guy at Spesh SRAM were having a fit at the thought of it anyway, and certainly didn't support it. May have been rubbish. It seems likely that it's one of each shifters. Bit gay really. It's the S-Works Stumpy, so I guess we'll see soon!

personally for myself (if i had the money)it would be xx all the way.but i reckon you would be better with xtr,as it would be harder wearing i think.

In your shoes, I'd fit XTR. It's proven itself over the years. So far XX has only been in the hands of pampered pros.

Also, XTR would give you interchanability with your other bike sso if you break something the night before a race, you could always make one good bike out of two broken ones.

People are mostly guessing about the relative performance or reliability of XX but, like people say, you're more likely to get XTR bits easily. That said, get what's shiny and appeals 🙂

bikerbruce – Member
if you are going to the desert i'd imagine you have money(oil?)

More likely a Bill Oddie?

Thanks for the toughts! Yes it will be a trade price, and no I've not looked into wether it will fit the 5 yet. If I bought now Madison are doing silly priced XTR groupsets, but would rather have something to dwell on for 6 months!

Anyone know if there are any changes to XTR for 2010?

Nah, XTR will change for 2011 by my reckoning, 4 year cycles, 1999, 2003, 2007…

i reckon you would be better with xtr,as it would be harder wearing i think.

Why? Full steel cassette (with replaceable alu sprocket) vs half ti one, no reason for chainrings to wear any faster, and checking the Fisher website they are only charging £106 for the replacement spider and rings for an S-Works chainset, which is far far cheaper than XTR. They're listing 2 different sizes, so it seems like it's an accurate price.

Ah what to do with the 6 month tour wedge!

Still can't decide! Just priced up xtr chainset, f&r deurailier, f&r shifters, and Hope X2 Race brakes at about £970. For an extra £300 I could have all that in XX from CRC at £1270.

Does anyone know if XX will fit my 5? There are different crank widths I think and I haven't a clue about which one? 156, 164,166? And then the ratio decision! 39:26 or 42:28 with 36-11 out back?!

coopersport, XX will only fit your Five with the 26-39 rings, not the 28-42. The chain would hit the main pivot bolts as you shift, trust me, i have played with a lot of these bikes, and played with a lot of dual ring set-ups.

Nick, the £106 price for the spider and rings is/was a mistake. I spoke to them this week about it. The rings and spider supplied on the EPIC are different to the STD XX rings too, as well as the rings and spider fitted to Cannondale cranks, they are different as well!

The correct price is £23.99 for the inner ring and £103.99 for the outer (still much cheaper than XTR, although Madison have just dropped prices to combat OEM sellers/price shaggers)

also get the XX version of the RS fork

I'm still sat on the fence at the moment, I guess if I have to go 26-39 then I can just go 32-11 at the rear.
BUT the spares bit does concern me at least if I smash an xtr rear mech I can get a fix pretty quickly and hadn't considered that I use 2 sets of wheels so would need 2 XX cassettes for ease, now it's getting super expensive.
Have a few big events this year TransGermany for a start and think reliability and interchangability will win over uber bling.

I could of course go XX up front and X0 at the back? for compatabilty saftey? Oh sh!te another option. or Middleburn Duo with XX mech? Well 6 weeks till home and still much to deliberate over 🙄

sorry if this has been asked before but can you run a standard mech with a xx cassette and roadie flat bar shifter?

I'm just going to use the XX chainset and front mech with XO at the rear, for me 10spd isn't needed, hell, I've been racing and riding on a modified 8 speed for several years anyway. 28/42 with the XTR 12-34 cassette is plenty and (almost) cheap to replace when things go south.

I've been using an XT crank with TA 28/42 rings on my Meta 4 last year and really like the chainline and weight saving POV, can't get exited about 10s though.

I'd go for XTR, no need to worry about anything.

X0 and pimpin' bling for the rest.

Oh, to the OP, and if you're reading this out there, stay safe and stay strong!

What about XTR rr mech, Dura Ace 10sp cassette and flat bar shifters? Then go double up front on XTR cranks and get what brakes you want.
Toyed with the idea of 1×10 for one of my bikes using that sort of set up.

i rode xx for the first time yesterday on my new bike- amazing, shifts so fast ! im not sure i would fit it to an an alpine/ am bike…..

why not nicks?

If you haven't already, try the feel of both shifters. SRAM works fine but I've never liked the shifters. That's just me though.

What a choice! I haven't got the brass,so don't have the problem,but if money was no oject,I'd go for the XX,just cos nobody else has it…and it looks great.

slowrider – Member

why not nicks?

i think its a durability / price thing. Break a sram xx rear mech in the alps and if you can find a new one its going to be ££££££££!! (anywhere for that matter) Also from my experience carbon cranks on AM bikes dosent seem a sensible option, they take such a pounding from rocks etc

in a money no object world … i would put XX on anything you can its brilliant much smoother than my other bike running xtr

cheers

so pimp!

yeah going full xx would be daft on a bike for abusing, i would quite like to go 10sp just because i run a single ring up front and would like the 36 rear sprocket. Is it cross compatible in any way?

Unconfirmed rumours that get you in trouble if you repeat them say that Shimano are going 10spd from SLX-XTR for 2011.

Depends if you can afford the on-going costs for replacing cassettes on XX… Personally I'd stick with XTR for now as it's well-proven and spares etc. are easy to get hold of (although given SRAM's size you prob wouldn't have issues with XX spares either).