Hey everyone welcome!
With the introduction of the new SRAM T-Type Transmissions they didn't just introduce 3 different cassettes
but they also introduced a new way of manufacturing their cassettes.
I have the XX and the X0 with me today, I also have an old X01, let's take a closer look at these!
And I'm gonna start by answering a couple of questions that I already got about these two cassettes:
the darker colored one is the X0 the other, shinier one is the XX
and one of the questions was whether the X0 is made entirely out of steel just like the Shimano Deore 6100.
And the answer is no, this is not (entirely) made out of steel
actually SRAM does not have any of the current T-Type cassettes made entirely out of steel.
At least the largest cog, the 52T is still manufactured out of aluminum, just like they had it with the previous generation Eagle cassettes.
The second question that came my way was directly related to the weight of these cassettes.
And just for comparison this is a 10-50T cassette, the old style, 354 grams.
Here's the X0 so the one that has a darker finish
comes up to 379 grams and surprise surprise!
The XX comes up to the same or actually two grams heavier - 381g
so there's no major difference in weight between the XX and the X0 cassettes T-Type.
In order to give us the lightest cassette in their lineup, the XX SL, SRAM actually used 3 aluminum cogs just like the Shimano XTR 9100
but why don't we take a closer look at the design of these cassettes because as I mentioned at the beginning
these are fairly different than what they've done in the past.
With the exception of the cheapest SX and NX, the Eagle cassettes were built with an aluminum cog, the largest 50T or 52T was aluminum
and for the X01 and XX1 we had this X-DOME design, all these 11 gears being pretty much machined from one large piece of steel.
This process was very expensive hence their cassette pricing overall and again on this view
you can see the large aluminum cog that is pretty much pinned here to the X-DOME 11 cogs.
The new cassettes still use the X-DOME idea from 10T all the way up to this 9th cog which is the 32T
however if you look carefully at the next 3 cogs you're gonna see pins going through them
and they talk about a lightweight aluminum carrier.
Well the aluminum carrier is actually the big 52 tooth cog.
Again if you look carefully here you're gonna see aluminum, then you're gonna see the second and third gear pinned directly to it.
Finally the entire aluminum carrier meaning the last three cogs are pinned to the X-DOME or to the first 9 gears
that are very similar to what they've done ever since we had the 11 speed cassettes or when they launched the 1x XX1 in 2013.
Identifying the cassette is fairly simple based on the finish
otherwise if you look carefully here in case of the X0 this is definitely T-Type, 520%, T-Type chain only and this is the XS-1295.
XX only has the logo up front but here on the back you can clearly see this is an XS-1297.
Another thing that clearly identifies these new cassettes from any others
is the presence of that red marker right inside of the X-DOME.
That signifies the 7th gear or the setup gear like SRAM calls it
and that is actually the only cog in this entire cassette that is not using a narrow-wide profile.
So if for the first generation Eagle we only had the 42T and the 50T or 52T narrow-wide profile
the new cassettes actually involve that throughout with the exception of this cog right here.
If you look carefully, narrow-wide is visible even on the 10T cog - look that's the wide, that's the narrow tooth,
it continues on and what you get up here where the stamped metal cogs are it's even more obvious
and you see these, not only the X-Sync narrow-wide profile but you have the nicely arranged shift ramps all over the cassette
because they are trying to give us a very good, smooth shifting even under power
something that Shimano has provided to us with the HG+.
But if Shimano was able to provide us with that smoother up-shifts under power by using pure mechanical means
SRAM had to involve not just the narrow-wide tooth profiles on the cassette
but also what they call the Cassette Mapping which is firmware on the derailleur believe it or not
we'll talk a bit more about that when I do the deep dive on the new derailleurs.
So what do you guys think? Advantage SRAM that needs electronic shifting for it or Shimano? Let me know in the comments below.
But where I think SRAM has Shimano beat is their approach to the e-bike market.
You're looking at the X0 and XX, both of these are e-bike ready.
Shimano, for their ebikes, they have an 11 speed Linkglide technology, look it up.
Cassettes are super heavy, they only have an XT and so on and so forth.
Going against SRAM is the fact that these cassettes only work on bikes that use the SRAM UDH
because those are the only frames that would make room for the new derailleurs.
By the way, why is there a price difference between the XX and the X0?
As you can see up to this point these cassettes are almost identical.
What SRAM says is that the metal that's used here on this X0 cassette is of a lesser grade compared to XX
and also that the coating is not as durable on the X0 versus the XX.
So what do you guys think? Is there a problem with these drivetrains only working on frames that have the UDH standard?
I don't know the answer but what I do know is that SRAM is relying more and more on their new standards
just to make their drivetrains or Transmissions unique.
For installation they use the good old XD driver that they've introduced with their 11 speed 1x drivetrains.
However knowing exactly where that XD Driver stops
they were able to push the cassette outwards, towards the frame by 2.5mm,
and like I mentioned in my video about the T-Type Flattop chain,
does that make room for an extra gear right here at the end of the cassette?
I don't have answers for that guys I'm just speculating here
but it's definitely a possibility when you think about the new chain being exactly the 4.9mm that we already have
with the 13 speed Campagnolo EKAR drivetrain. So what do you think? Let me know
Alright, a couple more things that I heard or read about at the initial launch.
And the first one was that the new cassette is actually wider overall than the outgoing Eagle 12 speed.
Cassette is definitely not wider, here's your 46.5mm of the old Eagle
and the new Eagle cassette sits at 46.07mm so they are definitely not wider
and one last thing I read was that the teeth of the new cassette are actually fatter, thicker, bigger than the old
and that's how SRAM gets the longevity out of these new drivetrains.
With the narrower chains overall that's hard to believe
and I'm just going to measure the thickness of that largest Cog which is 2.8mm on the old cassette
and the new cassette sits right at 2.8mm as well.
So no major differences between the teeth of the new cassettes even though in my other video where I looked at the chainrings
you could see that the teeth of the new cranksets are about 0.1 millimeter thinner.
We have the same 520% gear range however the gear spacing is better
so you might be tempted to install this new cassette on your old drivetrain.
But remember, this cassette sits closer to the frame by 2.5mm and that is enough for the cassette
to pretty much get jammed against the derailleur hanger, so once you tighten up your axle
the cassette is not going to move anymore, it's just rubbing against the derailleur hanger even though this is an UDH from SRAM.
If you try to use the new chain on the old cassette, I would ask you why,
the new chains are pretty expensive so let me know in the comments below why do you think that might be a good idea.
Anyway, a lot of details about this, I hope I answered most of your questions
but if you have more let me know in the comments.
Don't forget to like, subscribe, and comment,
and until next time hope to see you guys on the trails
why not running the new SRAM T-Type transmission.
Cheers guys, cheers!