Hi everyone after riding the Eagle for a little while,
long enough to get some battle scars here on the derailleur,
I thought I will give you a few more of my findings,
all kind of stuff that I couldn't fit in that installation video.
So here we go.
Quick look at the shifting performance
after about 100 miles or 150 km
Pretty much the last three races of the season.
You saw the issue with the 42t,
being a bit out of sync.
Upshifts are really smooth.
If you look at the cassette here you'll see that especially this aluminum 50t
is getting scratched up quite a bit, quite quickly.
You look at a coating here, it will show some use right away.
The chain getting out of sync with this 42 and 50 tooth cog
seems to be random
and it would only happen on the bike stand.
I did not experience it on the trail
and in talking with my local bike shop
they didn't see it on the trail either.
But it is reproducible on the stand.
This seems to do with the B-gap adjustment over here.
One of the reasons why SRAM introduced this adjustment tool
with all their new derailleurs
but it's kind of weird that it is so sensitive,
so it might have something to do with their design as well.
You can see that I might be 1 mm under that line,
the reason why I set it up like that
is so when I sit on the bike and my derailleur moves a little bit under my weight,
the top jockey just goes further away from the cassette.
So for those of you that didn't get this little tool,
take a ruler, and that is your 15 millimeter from the line down to
where this next tooth of the upper jockey is supposed to be.
Here is that approximate 15 mm, remember SRAM recommends doing this under sag so
sitting on the bike while you measure it.
If you're using an oval SRAM recommends
having your crank at 4 o'clock, if you remember they recommended having the
crank at 1 o'clock when measuring the chain.
Chainring at 4 o'clock,
that means the widest portion north/south,
that's when you adjust your B-gap here.
The difference between the crank at 1 and 4 o'clock
is about 1 millimeter here in B-gap adjustment.
The only reason why you want that big gap to be just right
is because otherwise you can
deteriorate the shifting on the smaller sprockets as well.
One of the issues that the 11 speed systems were plagued with was
back pedaling on the biggest cog.
On this one, I can backpedal as much as I want,
This is not gonna come off,
that is despite the fact that the 50 tooth as you remember is
pushed further in here, about 3 more millimeters in.
And that makes for quite extreme chainline.
That's the chainline guys it's pretty extreme as you can see,
Look at that angle of the chain...
Looking at the derailleur, with the cage locked/extended
you get about 5 mm of play.
Most of this play seems to come from that B-knuckle
where it connects to the derailleur hanger
that's supposed to be improved or redesigned.
I did check an X01 in the bike shop
and that one had a lot less play but still had a little bit.
This doesn't seem to affect the shifting in any way
but there is a clear possibility that I don't know any better
since this is the only 12 speed that I've used for a longer period of time.
Chainline on my bike is on this 6th smallest cog,
and with the chain over there in the middle of the cassette,
non Eagle chainring, you're gonna see that
the chain engages with the narrow-wide profile really nicely,
I had no issues with drop chains or chain retention in general.
I assume that all the advancements in chain technology
are to be felt at the extremes of the chainline.
But overall I think that the chain is probably the most refined part in
this new 12 speed.
By the way, the chain comes with a gooey type of oil on it,
so you might want to clean that out before installing.
Yes, I finally got my Eagle GX chain,
so here's the 12 speed next to the 11 speed PC-X1.
You can see the coating here on the two chains, is identical,
so if you were happy with a PC-X1 type of chain before,
I'm sure you would be very happy with the
SRAM GX Eagle chain.
These are both made in Portugal at their facility.
I did like the feel of this X01 shifter better than the GX and since I had both ,
I did install this one.
I don't regret it, I tested my drivetrain back-to-back with an XX1,
and they were very very similar in feel.
Most of that I'm sure comes from the shifter.
Now, the one feature that is a bit gimmicky is gotta be this ability
to move the angle of your down lever.
3 mm Allen key, loosen that one up a little bit
and this starts to move up or down.
You can't move it down much because
once you do that, it's in your way, you can shift up anymore.
If you move it up too much, then the ergonomics are gonna be pretty bad so
if you're happy with the way that GX shifter feels,
even though it doesn't have this feature,
I would definitely go for that and save quite a bit of money.
Pretty much used this drivetrain for the last three races of the season
and the training in between,
and if I am to summarize it it would be
Smooth, quiet and reliable.
Absolutely loved the bike with this extended range.
It definitely saved my bacon especially in the last race relay of the season.
It was the race when I abused it the most
and it worked flawlessly.
So all in all I am happy that I've chosen the fully baked solution
as opposed to a hybrid 11 speed.
Looking forward to see what Shimano is going to come up with
whenever they introduce something similar.
If you guys want to buy any one of these products
just use the links below,
let me know if you have any comments or questions,
don't forget to like the video,
keep an eye on my channel and social media.
And until next time,
I will see you on the trails guys.
Cheers!