Having decided to spend far too much money on a full Eagle 12sp groupset, I am very happy with the performance and feel of the kit. It just works and hasn’t let me down yet, although admittedly it’s still early days.

However, a ride on my other bike that has Shimano 10 speed with a Saint shifter reminded me just how good the Shimano shifters are. Being able to shift down the block pulling with my finger is so much more fluid than pushing with the thumb, and grabbing a few gears down at once is also great.

A quick google suggests that it is possible to mix some aspects of Shimano and Sram, but thought I’d ask if anybody has put a 12sp Shimano shifter on an Eagle system – and what did you find?

Not really interested in changing the mech as well, just the shifter.

Yes. XTR 12 speed shifter on X01 Mech. Works fine on my setup, including multiple shifting.

However, someone else off here couldn’t get the same combo set up properly, so it may vary or I may have got very lucky in terms of cable tension or some other variable.

I agree though – much prefer Shimano shifting for the reasons you say.

I also hate the Eagle crank attachment system, so that’s getting swapped out as well as soon as the chainring starts wearing out! The whole setup will be Shimano 12 speed when the prices start coming down (hopefully).

Pretty sure XTR 12sp and SRAM 12sp shifters now use the same cable pull ratio, meaning they should be interchangeable on any 12sp rear mech, if Martin has got it to work then it should be possible on any set up, as any issues would mean shifting was not possible as the cable being pulled by the shifter was not corresponding to the spacing on the cassette.

I’m running eagle everything on a Shimano derailleur so I’m sure it’ll work the other way about.

Sounds good to go.

Have ordered a band on shifter as not wanting to take a chance on I spec ev playing with hope levers.

Will report the findings.

Cheers all.

So, going a little further, a 12 speed XT shifter & XT rear mech will work fine with an x01 cassette & x01 chain?

Should do, the rear mech is actuating a set amount for each shift, so the cassette has to be spaced to map that, so if the shifters and mechs have the same ratios, then the cassette has to match as well.

This is the sort of thing that will lose Shimano market share in the long run I think.

Having a full Shimano 12 speed setup and my wife having Sram Eagle we both agree that the shift speed and quality of the Shimano is better, but it’s the cassette (and chain) that’s the biggest aid to that.

XTR with her GX cassette didn’t shift anywhere near as well but her GX with XTR cassette was an improvement on std.

But because Shimano have been muleish about licensing where Sram haven’t, most people won’t change from Sram cassettes (because they can’t) and will be distinctly underwhelmed with the change to Shimano when if run as a whole, it’s so much better than Eagle…

The sram and Shimano cassettes are slightly different widths.

I just started using sram GX cassette and shifter with XT mech. It worked well for a week in the Alps but on one occasion the shifter did do that thing where you go to change down and it lets out a load of cable. My sram Rival road shifters do the same thing. Srams latest shifters appear to be different.

I have tried an XTR shifter with a Sram XX1 rear mech and it didn’t quite work – it’d work at one end of the cassette perfectly but not right at the other. I got an XTR mech instead.

Which cassette was that on?

Just out of interest, is there any way of getting a shimano shifter to work with a SRAM 11sp mech and casette? Something in my mind suggests that a 12sp XTR shifter will work.

Onzadog – Sram cassette.

Tried full eagle with xtr rear mech, wasnt quite there, liveable, but not perfect enough for the cost outlay.

The shifter is here. Going to get it on shortly and see what I think.

Has to work perfectly or I’ll go back to the Sram shifter and leave it at that.

I’ve been considering a Garbaruk 12 speed cassette for my xD driver with XTR mech and shifter, but as mentioned above, it’s a lot of outlay for something that’s “just good enough”.

I believe there is a tiny difference the the spacing of the sprockets, something like 0.1mm, between Shimano 12sp and SRAM Eagle. That would equate to 1.2mm across the whole cassette.

To miniimize the amount of drift as you go through the gears, I would suggest setting it up and tuning in gears 6&7.

At the risk of sounding pedantic, 1.1mm. There’s only 11 gaps in a 12 speed cassette. I’ve heard it said before about adjusting for the middle of the cassette but I guess that 0.55mm is enough for some people to feel the performance drop off.

Well, that was interesting.

All went togehter ok and on the stand it required a bit of fettling to get the first two (largest) gears to engage properly.

As alluded to above it appeared not to like the extremes of the cassette, which stands to reason as I’ve also read about the 0.1mm difference per gear.

However with a bit of tweaking and very fine adjustment on the B tension screw, everything is working great with no noise in any gear.

Clicks right through the block up and down, either in singles, doubles or grabbing a handfull, and always lands in the correct gear. Never had this with 11 speed full shimano and a Sunrace 11 – 50 cassette and I’d say now it is 99%* as functional as the X01 but umpteen times more usable due to the ergonomics of the shifting options.

Didn’t even notice how good Shimano has it until I used something else, and it is such a good feeling on the bike going back to it. Such a small thing in the grand scheme of things but one that has brought inner peace back into my cycling.

* the 1% missing is not quite as solid a click as the X01 shifter and doesn’t distract from the performance.

A full ride will happen tomorrow and I’ll decide what happens then, as trail dirt / dust and bumps may alter the performance.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/eqAX6XsWgVwHVji57
https://photos.app.goo.gl/4Jw98PWJW44bNLdw8

@hot_fiat Yes – I’ve ran XTR 11speed mech on a SRAM XX1 shifter before with no issues at all.