alexdi profile

I was definitely more enthusiastic about these hubs in mid-2018 when they were first announced. Some surprising failures in execution. The forum warnings to 'carefully open the hub and fettle these components with this specific grease' remind me too much of Mavic. The wheelset I'd planned to build around XTR will probably end up on DT again.

I installed the 5100 11S iteration of this drivetrain on a 26er Cannondale with 2" tires. Cage had to have been 4" off the ground. Good shifting. Surprisingly good for a 142 bike, though Boost would have been more efficient in the big sprockets. Tuning was a surprise-- this is only Shimano RD I've seen that wants a slack cable in the smallest sprocket, to the point where the cable isn't even resting flush on the guide. 6100 (also installed on an older 29er) appears to be the same group save for the 10T. 

Shifter throws are kind of long; definitely preferred my XX1 shifters. And I'm of two minds about the clutch. It works a little too well. Shifting into bigger sprockets on the stand is butter when it's off and noticeably difficult when it's on. I didn't notice it on the bike as much just spinning around and certainly wouldn't on a trail, though would have liked to have seen a tension adjustment.

But as you say: it's cheap as chips. I paid something like $200 for the RD, shifter, cassette, and chain, plus another $15 for a Shimano-compatible ring to pair with an existing double. I priced out Advent, discounted Box, etc.-- nothing came up a better value.

I stand corrected. Same opinion, though.

Better than nothing, and yet still parsimonious. I'd argue a $15K S-Works fits in the "hyper-expensive" category. Same non-transferable warranty.

IME, gold tier includes Ritchey, BikeYoke, Kuat, Raleigh, and Diamondback. Cannondale requires some documentation but has come through for me on a few parts that repeatedly broke.

I don't value warranties as they exist now. Besides the fine print and the overhead, they're almost all non-transferable. That's a joke to me. Buy a used Hyundai and you'll get the balance of that 60,000 mile warranty. Spend the same money on a used Specialized (or Enve, or nearly every other brand, "premium" or not), and you can go pound sand.

To me, you either stand behind your product or you don't. The original owner already paid you for the warranty; if you negate that support when the product changes hands ten minutes later, you're treating that compensation like a windfall. One more liability to strike from the balance sheet! Hooray for you. But if that product breaks from an engineering or manufacturing defect, you can bet I'll be crowing about it in forums like this, and there won't be any "and they stepped in to make this right" to offset the bad taste.

That aside, most MTB products don't have "lifetime" utility. My first dropper was 150mm and $400. I replaced it two years later with a $300 185mm dropper, and that one will be replaced with a $200 200mm as soon as my next frame becomes available. An extended warranty on an obsolete product or one likely to rapidly drop in price just isn't that interesting. The warranty is mostly relevant to deal with infant deaths that occur in the first two years when I'm not eying a replacement for other reasons. 

For a customer-focused company, though, I'd say 7 years is the right span, few or no questions asked. And if someone contacts you about your thing from a decade ago and you make an exception here and there, they'll praise you to the heavens.

Great stuff, Cam. Will bookmark this one.

I have a whole garage of parts. Mostly road bike bits from 2005-2010, the peak of that delightful period when everything was interchangeable and externally-routed. Also have a fascination with vintage drivetrain components. The 'artisanal' years from the 70s to the early 2000s, before everything was computer-optimized, yielded some really beautiful stuff. I'd hang it on a wall before riding it though.

Very interested in this one. More travel than a 'downcountry' XC bike, but without the seeming indifference to weight that adds a pound or three to every other trail frame. And they've managed it with storage, a threaded bottom bracket, and intelligent routing, at a shockingly reasonable frame price. Looking forward to getting a leg over it.

Andrew, that's just it-- it's not the same position. If you actually sketch out where your grips are, you'll find that a configuration that feels different puts them somewhere else. It's not something you can eyeball or guesstimate; as an experienced rider, you'd probably notice a half-centimeter deviation in any direction, and for a bar that tall, just one degree in tilt will move the grips over a centimeter.

> where the stem is clamped in the same spot on the steerer

When you're picturing your bar setup with a stem mounted, imagine drawing extra support lines from your bar clamp to random points on the head tube. None of those lines would change your steering geometry. All of them represent a potential stem (or would, if we pretend you could mount a stem to the hidden parts of your steerer). It does not matter whether your new stem clamps lower or higher if your grip position doesn't change.

Excellent review, thanks for taking the time! I particularly appreciate the assembly notes.

I've made a worksheet of a potential build that brings the bike just under 27 pounds, though the bigger question is whether to go full-29 or take the plunge to a 69er.* How much flexibility did you have on the color scheme and logos?

• I just realized the 34T thing could be a problem with a 69er. I run 32T with a 29x2.5" and a 10-42. If I downsize to 27.5 in the back, the ring has to come up to 32 to keep the top end. Hmm.