Hi everyone!
Ever since I posted my quick check of the XTR 12 speed shifter,
I kept getting a couple of questions:
one is whether it works on the SRAM 12-speed, the Eagle.
Second, whether it is going to work on a good old 11 speed drivetrain,
and what you see here is my Transition Smuggler,
with the Shimano 11 speed that I consider
one of the smoothest drivetrains that I've ever used.
So in this video, I am going to replace the shifter for this bike,
which is an XTR 11 speed, M9000,
I'm going to replace that one with my Shimano 12 speed XTR,
and see if is compatible, if it works, or any other conclusions we can draw from there.
And as a baseline for our test, here's the shifting on this Shimano 11 speed drivetrain.
It's very quick, very smooth, and no chain rubbing on any of the cogs of the cassette.
The reason why this 11 speed is worth investigating is because
if you look at this Eagle 12 speed,
what Shimano has done to come up with the 11s,
they've taken their 12s cassette and eliminated the biggest cog, the 51T,
so they ended up with the 10-45T
but the spacing of the cassette, the cassette is not as thick.
So let's try this out!
And here is my i-spec II 11 speed, next to the 12 speed
this one is a bar clamp model, this is an i-spec II.
There's no 12 speed with i-spec II so far.
You can see the difference in shape,
if you look at the lever position,
they seem to be the same distance here
between levers on the two.
Also ergonomically, they're kind of very similar shape and everything.
The one thing that we have to change to make this 11 speed
is to switch that over.
And you hear a tiny click...
as you do the switch.
Same polymer coated inner cable,
same 4 mm Allen key to take up the slack.
And I could feel the difference in the lever here right away,
never had it connected to a derailleur before.
But does it work???
A bit of barrel adjustment here,
a bit of B-gap adjustment,
and here it is.
That looks better...
That was good...
Grabbing multiple at a time...
And a bit of side-by-side action here,
12 speed shifter on the left,
11 speed shifter on the right.
Shifting on the 12s felt sharper, crisper,
I was able to shift faster on the 11 speed
I guess because I was used to it.
So what did we learn out here today guys?
Well, first of all it works!
And thank you all that suggested this test.
If there's any cable pull difference between the 11 and 12 speed
drivetrain or derailleurs
I could not uncover it today in our little test.
On the shifter side, unless you buy the new brakes with the I-SPEC EV
and you have the older with I-spec II or B
you are back to a 2 bar clamp design
which I don't really like.
But I do like the better grip that the shifting levers provide.
This has the rubber insert, but that looks like the up-shifter
also changed the surface.
This is really grippy and rubbery as well.
The shifter feel has changed,
I noticed it right away
I think I like this one better
but it is a subtle difference.
But aside from that, why would you guys consider
one of these 12 speed shifters for an 11 speed drivetrain?
Maybe because you have two wheelsets?
One with a 12 speed cassette, one with 11?
I don't know, let me know what you think in the comments below.
If you consider this useful don't forget to like the video,
subscribe to my channel,
and until next time,
I hope to see you guys on the trails.
Cheers guys, cheers!