Heinous profile

I went to 12s XTR a few months ago. First xtr I've paid for in many years. It's outstanding, and i only did it after giving up on GXX warranties and the hassles that come with gX jockey wheels lunching themselves when you're back country. I've found the shifting (even with an eagle chain on a praxis ring) amazing, and the brakes the best I've ridden.

Like loads of SRAM stuff, some people have great experiences, loads have shocking ones - that inconsistency in QC is the real problem.

Being able to set up and tune without a sagged bike and a ridiculous piece of plastic is nice too.

By creating a new standard that supports 10t AND is ebike compatible, then shimano have cornered sram - to bring 10t to ebike they have to either chose Shimano's standard or face the wrath of creating another. It's a smart move in a number of ways.

On the music front, Damien Jurado just put a new album out, and it kinda intersects the Morby weirdness and the Jenny lyricism...

I picked up some xtr m780’s cheap - looks like a shop grom took the proprietary rings off in a rush and when they went to replace discovered cost or availability wasn’t kind.

I totally agree on geo. I’m not a fan of short rear ends. Slack fronts I find there’s a limit (and reach, bar width all play a part). If it’s too short in the rear I just find it won’t suppirr the kind of gymnastics I resort to on an SS in lieu of an extra 200w.

Tube shapes, underlying materials, lighter weight paints, most definitely more gnarly terrain.

I've seen a few people battle badly getting tyres off the new Enve rim/strip combo though. Once the tyre and sealant bonds to that thing, it's a mess.

We've designed it around 120mm with a 66º HA unsagged / 67º sagged. BB drop of 52 rather than 55mm as I run 180mm cranks for SS.

I might try it at 130mm or 140mm at some point. Either way it'll be a load more versatile than my 10 year old Soulcraft. When we designed that people were shocked to see a 100mm fork on a 29er.

That's a good idea - though again, limits you to freehubs to get that 3mm (or 6mm) of chainline back. Not a biggie unless you're moving an existing wheelset or tragically in love with your Paul Comp hubs like me.

Man, I love how comprehensive and open this review is - thanks! 

I searched high and low for exactly what I was after, and just before this was released pulled the trigger on a BTR with geo that’s pretty much bang on what you describe as perfect. 

One other thing I guess the dropped stay rules out is oval rings? That’s a pity, oval rings for SS and something I wouldn’t want to compromise on.

Timely - I'm grappling with what to put in the back of my new 29" hardtail. I've had poor luck on plus (2.8x27.5) until I put Huck's in, and in the end still ended up running a narrower rear rim to close down the volume and provide more ramp.

I'll be running a singlespeed, so ideally not adding much weight to the wheel, but keep wondering if I shouldn't have built a 25-27mm internal rear instead of a 30mm.

Ironically, just today; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tsk3zAZyLaQ

Nah. I've seen etap have all kinds of problems, and SRAM's QC is, simply put, shithouse. Needing multiple small, short life batteries is a hassle too. One of the best things with Di2 is the ability to just forget about the battery for months, and then charge quickly whenever you remember. I've already been seeing the new 'ultimate' pike's failing (ingesting air from + to - chamber). That, coupled with the unpredictability of eagle to do it's job is enough for me to avoid it.

I imagine we'll see new Di2 later this year, possibly with a wireless shifter and wired main battery/computer to derailleur.

The nude shock integrates something like a reservoir in to the can. I don’t like it, but it makes sense

It’s weird how we can spend a small fortune on bikes lots of shop employees could never afford even at staff price, but expect them to give us the same service and expertise as $500/h professionals.

That’s a big part of why shops are having to change, and it works at the high end, and maybe the big low end stuff, but the mid range has such little margin it’s no wonder shops are falling over and manufacturers are just cutting them out altogether.

YT’s model seems to sandwich their distributors. I dealt with the oceania one after snapping three cf capra’s and their were friendly, but ultimately perpetuated the same flaws - even supplying a replacement that YT knew had a defect which snapped catastrophically and painfully on its first ride. The Capra rode amazingly but at that point I lost all faith and immediately got something else.

I came off Saints (at one point runnning xtr xc levers) that were awesome for years, to some of the XT 4 pots. It’s hard to tell much difference, except price.

The TRP’s are tempting mostly because they run a shimano bleed port and pads.

After dealing with so many different and catastrophic sram brake issues over the years I’m willing to risk a ‘wandering bite point’ - though I have yet to experience it on any bikes.

I had nothing but problems with GX. There's so much play in the main derailleur bolt that when you combine it with a narrow-wide 50t it gets snagged constantly. SRAM warrantied mine immediately and replaced the main derailleur bolt with the XX1 version that is much better.

It continued to be really inconsistent, especially in mud, where the derailleur was prone to throwing the chain off jockey wheels.

That, combined with the fact that setting up the B-tension is a two person job as you need both the wee guide tool and the suspension sagged, was enough for me to ditch it.

I'm now running a shimano set up with the SunRace 11-50t and it's been great. There's the slightest hesitation moving to a harder gear from the 42, but it's improved a lot with some riding (KMC chain).