Hey folks!
Time flies doesn't it? it was like yesterday when we were looking at
the Shimano 11 speed as being the latest and greatest
but today I got my hands on an XT 12 speed cassette,
so why don't we take a closer look.
As you probably know, they introduced two cassettes with their 12 speed,
one that is optimized for gear steps, the 10-45T,
the one I have here is optimized for range,10-51T, so 510% range.
All these cassettes use what's called the MICRO SPLINE,
the new freehub body introduced with the 12 speed.
In this corner you're gonna see
the product number, serial number, and that the XT is made in Japan, just like before.
The bigger cassette obviously required a bigger box,
and inside of it you're gonna see that they are going digital!
You only have this little leaflet telling you to scan the QR code
to get to user manual.
Cardboard and shrink wrap keeps the cassette together,
and as you undo the flaps,
here it is!
10-51T XT cassette from Shimano
MICRO SPLINE is the new freehub body required by the 12 speed
but from an installation standpoint they are pretty identical.
And that is because both the old and the new cassette
use a lock ring that you see over here.
That is another reason why they come in
very similarly installed on a plastic tube like that
that actually makes the installation quite easy.
The lock ring on the 12 releases the 10 and 12 tooth cogs,
the rest of them are on that same tube.
You can see here the two biggest cogs are made out of aluminum,
just like the 11-46T 11 speed XT,
and if you remove this tab, just pull on it here in the back,
you will be able to slide out the rest of the cogs.
This new cassette design still has loose cogs
which I'm not too crazy about,
and you can see here the 14th tooth,
that's a spacer,
the 16th, that's another spacer, thicker,
and finally the 18th tooth.
So you have 5 loose cogs on the XT cassette and 2 spacers.
All the cogs are made out of steel,
forged steel for which Shimano has a really good formula as you know,
and again the 45 and the 51 tooth
are made out of aluminum.
On the back of the cassette you're gonna see,
this is an XT, but it's easy to identify because it has two aluminum cogs,
XTR has three and SLX has one.
CS-M8100, 12-speed made in Japan.
The only other thing that's new here is the spider design,
this is called the Beam Spider,
which is hollow in the middle
and it makes room for all those rivets to hold the cogs together.
Also the way it touches the spline is different,
you can see, you have touch points here the beginning of the spider
and at the end of it,
with the machined portion right in the middle.
The old spiders were solid piece of aluminum
and you usually had two spiders in a cassette.
The spec sheet weight of the cassette is 470 grams,
that's exactly what I have on my scale.
That is comparable if not slightly heavier,
than a GX, SRAM GX Eagle which is 448 grams.
They are identical, starting with the 10t cog,
all the way up to the last four.
That is where this one has 33t, 39t
45t and 51t,
as opposed to 32t, 36t, 42t
and then a bigger jump here to the 50 tooth cog.
The installation requires the same cassette tool as before,
The lock ring has to be tighten up to 30-50 Newton meters,
I'm probably going to use 40 just like before.
The other thing is, if you're looking carefully here,
that's a little dot, on that 10t cog,
You see a corresponding dot here, on the 12 tooth cog.
Well, you have to line them up when you install the cassette
because this little guy, the 10 tooth,
actually locks onto the 12 tooth cog
and not onto the freehub body at all.
The only other gotcha is that the spacers used between the 14 16 18 cogs
one is really thin, the other one is thicker as you see it over here.
However, you if you're just installing straight out of the box,
you only have to worry about lining up the 10 and 12 tooth cogs.
This holding tube and the tab is cleverly designed by Shimano,
to help with installation.
Just line up your biggest groove, here on the MICRO SPLINE with the tab,
and as you remove that one,
you're gonna see how your whole cassette slides onto it.
Many of you guys know that I've been using the XTR 12 speed
this year, with a GX cassette, that's the 10-50t.
Really looking forward to seeing whether the 10-51t from Shimano
works the same or better.
And whether the HYPERGLIDE+ that's supposed to help
with the shifting in the lower cogs
is actually going to make a noticeable difference or not.
So what do you guys think?
Are you gonna get the Shimano 12 speed?
Do you have the MICRO SPLINE to go along with it?
Let me know what you think
in the comments below.
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And until next time,
I will see you folks on the trails.
Cheers guys, cheers!