Shimano Goes To 11 – 46

Much has been made of Shimano’s failure to adequately address SRAM’s lead in the increasingly popular one-by drivetrain category. With adequate gear range, provided by a 10-42 cassette, massive weight savings and excellent chain retention thanks to SRAM’s narrow-wide technology, many riders have permanently forsaken the front derailleur.

It’s a quiet and hassle free shifting solution that is also proving to be durable and reliable. Shimano came out with one-by options last year, but with a smallest cog of 11, rather than SRAM’s 10 (thanks to their XD Driver Body) gear range was compromised.

Unable to go smaller without a hub redesign, Shimano has opted for a dinner plate granny gear. One Up demonstrated that a Shimano XTR derailleur could handle 45 teeth, and Shimano ran a little further with it to 46. You may say to yourself that Shimano isn’t addressing the top end issue with this, but they are of course. With a 46 in the rear you can run a larger chainring and still end up with an adequately low granny.

The keyboard warriors are sure to chime in with comments suggesting riders should ‘grow a pair of legs’ or harden the fuck up – those are always popular, but they are missing the point. A 30 tooth chainring mated with a 10-42 will give you a high ratio of 3.0 and a low ratio of 0.714 (I’m not getting into gear inches). A 32 paired with an 11-46 will give you a high of 2.9 and a low of 0.695. A 34 with the 11-46 will take that to 3.09 and .74 – slightly higher on both ends than the 30 with a 10-42 but with a low gear that is within reach of the 30-42. For now these cassettes will be XT and XTR only.

Shimano has also addressed chain retention with an updated tooth profile and new chains for XT and XTR. Aside from the CAD image provided, we don’t have much info on DCE (dynamic chain engagement) but it appears that each tooth is asymmetrical fore and aft – mating with a similar profile on the chain. Time on the trail will tell if it will be as sticky and trouble free as Narrow Wide.

The other highlight is a tool-free quick link. This is backward compatible with all Shimano 11-spd chains and many home mechanics will rejoice.

Here’s Shimano’s release, complete with plenty of acronyms.


 

OSAKA, Japan (March 1, 2016) – Shimano has advanced the performance of its premium XTR and DEORE XT 1×11 mountain bike drivetrains while creating even more range and options as part of its Rider Tuned drivetrain philosophy. Also announced today were new gear combinations for 2×11 and 3×10 cranksets, new hydraulic disc brakes and a disc brake rotor lock ring promising easier assembly.

Advanced 1×11 premium mountain bike drivetrains
Shimano advanced its new XTR and Deore XT 1×11 chainrings with direct input from its elite mountain bike athletes, from cross-country to trail riders who tested in various conditions, seasons and locations around the globe. Efficient chain management was the goal and the new XTR (SM-CRM91) and DEORE XT (SM-CRM81) chain rings achieve this by introducing the Dynamic Chain Engagement (DCE) concept.

Dynamic-Chain-Engagement

Shown here, the tooth profile changes made in Shimano’s DCE (Dynamic Chain Engagement) rings.

 

Shimano_DCE_Chainring

And that’s what it’ll look like when mounted up.

 

The modified tooth profile on the CRM91 and CRM81 DCE chain rings are designed to provide superior chain retention, lower driving noise and increased durability. Steel plated teeth on the XT version provide greater durability, while strengthened aluminum teeth on the XTR chainring reduces weight.

The 1×11 drivetrain range has been extended to a super-wide 11-46T range providing optimal gear choices for all-mountain riders and enduro racers. The new CS-M8000 cassette is compatible with XTR M9000 and DEORE XT M8000 drivetrains and has a target weight of 450g.

OneUp-Components-45T-11-Speed-Shimano-Sprocket-XTR-Cassette-Assembled-2up-GRY-1024

Shimano doesn’t yet have an image of the new 11-46 cogset. Pictured here is an 11-42 fitted with OneUp’s 45 tooth low gear. Shimano has gone one better with the 46. Your imagination will have to fill in the gap until we get our hands on a photo – and a test unit.

 

To simplify chain assembly, Shimano introduced a new tool-free 11-speed chain QUICK-LINK (SM-CN900-11) for quick, on-the- trail repairs. The SM-CN900-11 link is compatible with all 11- speed Shimano chains. For rapid assembly of multiple chains a professional assembly tool (TL-CN10) is also available.

SM-CN900-11

Shimano’s new Quick-link will be compatible with all of their 11-speed chains.

 

Pricing and availability
These new mountain bike components are set to be available as an after-market purchase in summer 2016. Pricing has not yet been set.


Shots fired! 46 gauge incoming.

 

Tags: Deore XT, Shimano 11-46, Shimano DCE, XTR
Posted in: News

Trending on NSMB

Comments

clayton
0

I'd like to know besides 11 and 46 what the other 9 rings are for tooth count.

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christophe
0

11-13-15-17-19-21-24-28-32-37-46

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clayton
0

Thank you, 37 - 46 is a pretty massive jump,

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clayton
0

I just read your gear ratio comparison.. When it comes to working out gear ratios in a drive line whether it be a car, a bike or anything mechanical the Ring gear (Gear connected to the output shaft) is divided by the pinion gear (Gear off engine) In this case, the Cassette gears divided by the chain ring give correct gear ratio numbers.
Why do you do the ratios in reverse? That is extremely confusing.
Using the Cassettes gears divided by the chain rings will make life really easy for anyone looking to compare different gearing options.
42/32 (What I have on my bike) I make 1.312 pedal strokes for each rotation of the wheels.
A 46/30 would be 1.53333 pedal rotations for every 1 rotation of the wheels which would be very close to a 2×10 drive line running a 38 Cassette/24 granny ring which would be 1.58333 but still not as easy as some might like.

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the-prophet
0

SRAM get NW ring design patent, SRAM starts suing companies using NW design without licensing it (Race Face), Shimano releases NW ring design.

*hit is going to get interesting!

Maybe it is time for the rise of the little guys as SRAM and Shimano battle it out in court and spend millions…

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sandy-james-oates
0

I thought the one up 45 tooth only worked with Shimano 11-40 not the 11-42. You show an 11-40 in your picture.

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cam@nsmb.com
0

The beauty of photoshop.

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nat-brown
0

Is it just me or does that CAD image indicate the the new tooth profile is narrow-wide, but with a novel take on the fore-aft profiling of the wide teeth? Maybe this is obvious, or obviously not the case and I'm being stupid. Call me out please.

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cam@nsmb.com
0

You may be right Nat. I was only looking at the image that was highlighted, but perhaps the other tooth is relevant. Interesting.

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kimcheefartz
0

Meh… I'll stick with the Pinion. 600% gear range, no worn out chains from all the cross chaining, no chains dropping down the cluster when backpedalling. Glad to be done with all the drivetrain sillyness.

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doge-approved
0

well.. i ride 1×10 and it's enough for trail riding (both uphill and downhill), i wouldn't get a bigger chainring or cog! i'm using XT 10spd cassette with one up 42t cog and 36t chainring, can ride pretty much any steep (rideable) climb without even using the 42, only use it for long climbs, so perhaps a 46T cog would be overkill..

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0

not everyone lives where you do or rides the same terrain

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d_e_fresh
0

It's also worth noting that some bikes suspension performance is affected by the size of the front chain ring. For some, running a bigger front ring may not be very desirable.

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Dirk
0

Two teeth either way isn't going to have much effect here.

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d_e_fresh
0

On my bike it would be a 4 tooth jump to get the same gearing. That could change my anti-squat by as much as 20%, which I think it's quite significant!

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Dirk
0

I've seen the analysis…

The effect is most noticeable in your small cog, where pedalling inputs have the least impact on your rear suspension. Up on the large cogs, it's only in the neighbourhood of 4-5%, depending. I also don't think this accounts for the drop in leverage that you see due to the larger diameter chainring (less leverage=less force on the chain=less effect of pedalling inputs).

I'll stick with my original statement that I don't think a two tooth change is going to have much of a (real world) effect here.

And the cases look worse (generally) as you move down to a smaller chainring, not the other way around (as Wayne pointed out).

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Faction
0

Most bikes run better with larger chainrings

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d_e_fresh
0

It depends on if you're talking about climbing, descending, or pedaling on flat ground. Bigger rings generally give better anti-squat for descending, but worse for climbing.

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d_e_fresh
0

But don't take my word for it. This guy has probably forgotten more about the issue than I will ever know…

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Dirk
0

The whole anti-squat analysis thing is only valid under steady state pedalling while seated. Once you stand up, your center of gravity moves and it is a whole different equation. Not to mention the forces from pedalling are totally different. The whole "micro acceleration" thing isn't really an issue when you're not grunting along in a granny gear. Anybody who claims to have optimized anti-squat through all chainrings, speeds, pedalling types, terrains, riding styles etc. is selling bikes.

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nat-brown
0

It's not about taking someone's word for it, it's about rationally understanding what's going on. I respect DW's design and engineering chops, but there's not a lot of substance in that post: it's just his say so that chainline (ring-to-sprocket, not the usual use of the term) compensates effectively for the angle of gravity as we ride up and down hill.

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xeren
0

i think you have it backwards - suspension performance improves with larger front rings

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morgan-taylor
0

Worth noting the total gear range afforded by this cassette is effectively the same as the SRAM 10-42 (42/10 = 4.20; 46/11 = 4.18) but the jumps between gears should be more consistent on the Shimano cogset as that was one of their ideals when they introduced the 11 speed XTR group.

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pete@nsmb.com
0

Thanks Morgan. I wanted to pull out the tool/slide rule to include that but just haven't had time this morning.

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jtaza
0

OK So as a pretty decent / intermediate level trail rider with 10+ years of the trail - I am embarrassed I dont totally understand the gear ratios. But basically, if I want the lowest possible gear that will let me spin up the steepest longest road, then this 46 tooth design will give me that…right?

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morgan-taylor
0

The larger the rear cog, the easier the gear. Using a 28 tooth front ring with this 11-46 cassette would give you the same easy gear as a 22 tooth granny with a 10 speed 11-36 cassette. Any lower than that and it's time to do the enduro walk.

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gg
0

Methoughts 30T front was smallest for 1×11 Shimano drive or were you just exampling ?

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morgan-taylor
0

Direct mount cranks let you do what you want! (Except if what you want is Shimano cranks.)

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freserick
0

You don't think they knew this last year? Of course they did, so now you need a different casset.

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jtaza
0

Huh?

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Lee-Lau
0

"The other highlight is a tool-free quick link. This is backward compatible" yeeeeessssss.

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cooper
0

Only backwards compatible w/ 11spd, though. So all of like…. 1 year. Thanks Shimano.

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Lee-Lau
0

I would bet it'll work with 10 speed though. Everyone said the 9 speed SRAM tool free powerlinks wouldn't work with 10spd but they worked fine.

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pete@nsmb.com
0

Let's take what we can get and be happy that moving forward, quick links are in play w/ Shimano chains.

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cooper
0

Amen!

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0

I've been using sram quick links on shimano chains for years without issue

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jeff-white
0

KMC makes a quicklink for Shimano 10 speed chains. Works a treat.

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cam@nsmb.com
0

10 spd chains are already tool free. At least they are for me. Only the 11 spd chains require some sort of mechanical advantage to remove.

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john-utah
0

Me Too, Im running sram chains now though pc991 , I feel like my shimano chains last longer though??
Thoughts?

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0

yes, recent 10spd SRAM chains have left me wanting, shimano however are pretty much like the rest of their line, durable and reliable.

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