Hey everyone!
What is special about this 500 % drive train range in the summer of 2020?
Well, the answer is not that much, because
we have the 20% better 10-52t introduced by SRAM not too long ago!
Uh, wait, isn't that just 4 percent???
How much more cassette you get from SRAM versus Shimano these days?
Well, you look at the diameter here and is a tiny, tiny difference,
and it's a whopping 2 percent difference in range between 510% and 520%.
However, if you look at the proportions of the two cassettes,
the jump here between 42 and 52 tooth looks quite dramatic,
like a bailout gear, a true bailout gear,
whereas the Shimano cassette looks better designed
with that jump from 45 to 51.
But how is it different from the old SRAM 10-50t cassette?
This midlife refresh brings new colors
and that includes new colors for the box.
You have the old GX box, which is by the way the same size,
but this time it's white and you still have the subtle GXhere on one side.
And on one end of the box you're gonna see that this is made in Taiwan,
the manufacturing week, also the new part number (which is new)
And you see the description CS XG 1275 EAGLE 10-52T
This is the black, they only have GX in black.
With majority of their parts SRAM introduces this leaflet
telling you to go on their website for information,
and... wait for it, wait for it...
Here is the cassette, tadaaa!
As you turn it over, here's your entire 520% range!
On the face of the cassette, the Eagle logo is now tiny and you don't have 500% written on it
However, on the back of the cassette
you're gonna find the product code
which is the same as before,
you're gonna find the serial number stamped over here on the aluminum cog,
if you didn't know you're gonna see that you can only use this with an XD driver,
and more importantly, here in the middle is gonna say
Use only with Eagle 520% or Eagle AXS RD or rear derailleurs.
And inside here you're gonna see plenty of grease
so this cassette is ready to be installed straight out of the box.
Cassette design hasn't changed much,
have a very early GX cassette,
the current 10-50T GX,
and the new 10-52T.
They all have narrow wide profile teeth
here on the 42T and 52T or 50T.
If you look at the shift ramps here on the 52T and the previous 50T
they are very, very similar if not the same.
They are slightly modified from the early versions
which didn't have that many curls or whatever those are called.
Also, on this 10-52T you have more shift ramps on that biggest cog
I assume because of the increased range.
Also at some point in the production,
the profile of that 42 tooth has changed.
These seem to be stamped cogs
versus the old one that might be machined,
so it might be just a cost reduction process.
I showed you the size comparison with the Shimano cassette,
here's the 10-50T on top of the 10-52T
That is 6-7 mm bigger dinner plate on the 10-52T
and that's the 4 percent increased gear range to 520%.
I have an older video talking about the difference between X01 / XX1 cassette
and something like a GX, and that comparison still stands.
If you look at the GX cassette they use all these pins to connect the steel cogs
all the way up to the biggest one which is made out of aluminum.
But for those of you that have had the 11 speed GX cassettes from SRAM
this portion here the 10 to 42T,
I swear to God it looks exactly like that with a big mama cog bolted onto it!
What do you guys think?
And not to forget the most important aspect of everything...
We have new colors on the redesigned RAM drivetrains!
GX only gets what's called lunar gray
which is here on the big 52T cog.
I believe this is used by all their cassettes
X01 and XX1 get different colors on the 10 to 42T cluster as well.
In the past GX only had the black but
if you look carefully at this, it really, really reminds me
of the Shimano SLX bluish gray.
It's pretty impressive that even though we have a bigger largest cog
The weight of this cassette is exactly 4 grams more
than the 10-50T weighted a couple of years back.
Nothing fancy about the SRAM GX chains,
the same ones are supposed to be used with the new cassette,
however, as you saw, they don't recommend
using the old derailleur with that 10-52T cog range.
I guess the message is
buy this new GX Eagle lunar grey, max 52 tooth derailleur for best performance
and I guess I'm gonna have to review this next.
But because I like to experiment I'm gonna take this new cassette
and install it on the old GX drivetrain.
And for those of you interested in mixing SRAM and Shimano
I'm also gonna put that cassette
on this mix of XTR and GX cassette and see what we get.
Installation is pretty trivial, obviously you need the XD driver,
I already mentioned the grease in there.
And you're going to need a cassette tool.
I always start to thread this by hand if I can
then grab a torque wrench and finish tightening it.
I always tighten these to 40 Nm.
And to make this a true test I'm gonna put a new chain.
By the way, I have a full video on how to install SRAm Eagle
make sure to check that out!
In this case for a hardtail (chain length) it's gonna be
Big-to-big + 4 links here (2 inner, 2 outer)
And that ended up about 2 links longer than the chain used with the 10-50T cassette.
And without changing anything else
you can see how the top jockey pretty much overlaps with the 52T cog
when it gets close to it.
So obviously we don't have enough B-gap.
So I adjusted that B-gap to the point where I can barely squeeze my 3 mm Allen key in here
between the top jockey and the bottom of the 52 tooth.
And this is what we got.
I didn't adjust anything else on the derailleur aside from that big gap
And I'm sure the new derailleur works better
but I don't see anything wrong with this.
Obviously this is only on the bike stand
but I've done enough testing like this
to know that this looks definitely promising.
And do you guys remember the back pedaling on the biggest cog ?
I used to do this test a lot let's give it a try here.
So this is a 29er, pretty short chainstays at 420 mm
and ...uh oh, look at that!
So depending on where you are on the cassette
you might be able to do quite a bit of this back pedaling
but eventually the chain will drop.
The only problem is that when it drops,
it does it so very aggressively
so it jumps about 2 cogs and that's gonna jam your derailleur into the cogs.
We usually use this Shimano XTR drivetrain
with the SRAM 10-50T cassette
because I like their cassettes better.
So by installing the 10-52T
I only had to adjust the B-gap a little bit.
Let's see it.
It feels a bit smoother than the other one (GX)
but this is XTR versus GX, kind of expected
Working perfectly fine as well.
The same back pedaling test, here it is first on the 10-50T cassette.
This is a longer chainstay bike and I can backpedal as much as I want.
Same bike with the longer chainstay, 10-52T cassette.
When you get to that shift ramp or whatever that is
this cassette is going to drop the chain when back pedaling.
And you can see it it's already ...
The chain is already jammed in there,
this can damage your derailleur, so keep this in mind.
This 10-52T cassette is definitely prone to dropping the chain when back pedaling.
But SRAM is going to continue to sell this 10-50 tooth cassette
so if you don't care for the extra 4% range you have options these days.
So the new, expanded range cassette works well with the Shimano drivetrain
obviously it works fine with my old GX drivetrain here.
It seems to like the old derailleur
but I am definitely looking forward to trying out
the new derailleur introduced with this new redesign
so make sure you subscribe to my channel to know when I get to it.
What do you guys think about this new cassette?
What do you think about the new expanded range?
What do you think about the new colors?
Let me know what you think in the comments below.
If you have any questions don't forget to ask.
If you found this useful
don't forget to like, subscribe,
keep an eye on social media,
and until next time, hope to see you folks on the trails,
why not riding a SRAM Eagle drivetrain
Cheers guys, cheers!