Looking at brakes, currently have a set of Elixir 5’s and am looking at changing them. I’m thinking a set of XT’s for ease and reliability and they’re not stupidly expensive. Anything else I should consider before I go ahead?

Also looking at some bling, chainset wise it’s either XT for reasons as above or as I’ve always wanted one I considering a Middleburn RS8 chainset, is it worth the extra cash?

And finally XT at the rear mech or XTR?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated? Thanks

What you running at the moment as drivetrain? Not that impressed by XT myself

Running X9/X7 but don’t like it at all. It’s works as it should but it feels so clunky, I prefer the glide of Shimano.

And finally XT at the rear mech or XTR?

If I was selectively buying XTR, I’d sooner have an XTR shifter and an XT rear mech, rather than the other way around.

I agree with asdfhjkl, I’ve found the shifters make much more of a performance improvement than the mech.

Yep what they said

If you want to save a few quid then downgrade the brakes to SLX and spend the savings on better shifters to XTR.

Yeah, the main competition for XT brakes is other shimano.

Crankwise… You need a really good reason to not fit Shimano frankly. Middleburn definitely not worth the extra in any objective way but if you like the looks then maybe.

And yep, shifter is the brain, mech is just muscle so if you want to upgrade one, go shifter. But worth trying different options as they’re not so much better/worse, it’s all feel, I really dislike the feel of XTR personally but ymmv.

Running X9/X7

In that case, if you want a new rear mech you also need new shifters, Shimano mechs don’t work with SRAM shifters.

XT or SLX brakes are a sensible option, they work well and are reliable.
I think Shimano cranks are also a sensible, reliable option. They shift better than most too if you use a front mech so I think I’d be keeping Shimano there too.
XT mech for me, XTR is beautful but bloody expensive for most much gain.

And if you’re going to upgrade all of that you may find it cheaper, or close to anyway, to buy a complete new groupset of the likes of Merlin, £359 without rotors, done.

Sorry should have said I was changing to XT throughout with the Merlin groupset and then from there possibly changing the chainset and rear mech but may just keep it as full XT throughout and maybe spend a bit more on forks than I was going too.