30 gears: too much of a good thing?
After countless laps, the testers became chronically lazy about shifting gears. Shifting was almost exclusively done with the right hand. The small sprocket of the XT was only used on steep slopes, the large chainring was hardly ever used - and not missed on SRAM's X.O. The unanimous opinion of the testers: As long as it doesn't get extremely steep or you're travelling at high speeds on downhill sections, 20 gears are sufficient. It is clear that the 39 (SRAM) and 32 (Shimano) gears are the most popular with both groupsets. However, with Shimano's XT you simply have to shift more often, whereas with SRAM's X.O you almost only use your right thumb for shifting. The smaller chainring of the X.O also increases ground clearance - a plus point for all-mountain and enduro riders.
That was the conclusion of our circuit comparison. Of course, we didn't just test the two groupsets in practice and determine the weights of the individual components in the laboratory. We also considered the individual gear ratios and gear overlaps. You can read the results in the table, which you can download here.
