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32 teeth. That is the standard for us humans. For mountain bike gears, 36 teeth on the largest sprocket was considered the maximum for many years. But now that front derailleurs and double cranks have almost been squeezed out of the market, up to twelve sprockets with 50 teeth and more can be found on the freehub bodies of current bikes. The Eagle cassette from the single-speed pioneer Sram, for example, offered a range of a whopping 500 per cent with its 10-50 tooth gradation. But after Shimano gave all its twelve-speed cassettes one more tooth, it was only a matter of time before Sram's Schweinfurt development department went one better. From June 2020, the time has come: the US company will be presenting its top 3 Eagle groupsets GX, X01 and XX1 with a 52-tooth cog (>> e.g. at Bike components available). This means one tooth more than the Shimano counterpart and 20 per cent more range than the previous Eagle cassette, which will still be available. To achieve this, Sram has revised the rear derailleur cage and installed a harder spring. Because the gradation of the other sprockets has not been adjusted, only one small detail has changed in practice, but in some situations it is decisive: bikers have an extra-light mountain gear up their sleeve. This could be a decisive advantage when a climb rears up as mercilessly as the notorious concrete ramps on Lake Garda.
Of the Sram drivetrains known to date, only the electronic AXS rear derailleurs can handle the huge 52-tooth sprocket. All others stop at 50 teeth. If you still screw the new cassette onto the freewheel, you have to reckon with jumping chains and unclean shifting. The ergonomics of the shift levers and the cage-lock function for removing the rear wheel have not changed. The GX benefits the most from the range update. This is because the entry-level NX and SX groupsets are still only available with 50 teeth. The updated version of the GX, on the other hand, still costs the regular 555 euros and weighs less than the Shimano XT single-speed version. For the first time, a stylish carbon crankset is also available as an option, which weighs just 22 grams more than the Shimano XTR crankset.
The only drawback of the Sram cassettes with 520 per cent bandwidth is the big jump from the 42 to the 52 sprocket. A whopping 24.5 per cent increase in gear ratio is achieved with the click of a thumb. With Shimano, the six-tooth gradation between the two lightest gears is much more homogeneous. Even Rotor only jumps from 44 to 52 teeth on its 13-speed drivetrain. Read on to find out how the new GX Eagle performs in direct comparison to Shimano's XT and SLX and whether the 52-tooth sprocket shifts smoothly.
Update X01 & XX1 -The two top mechanical groupsets from Sram get more range. In addition to the rear derailleurs with a new cage and stronger spring, both groupsets also include a cassette with 10-52 teeth. The new rear derailleurs are backwards-compatible, so they can also cope with the 10-50 sprocket set. There is no retrofit kit for old rear derailleurs. According to BIKE measurements, the X01 and XX1 cassettes with 10-52 teeth both weigh 379 grams. Price: 391 euros and 457 euros respectively.
You can find this article in BIKE 8/2020. You can read the entire digital edition in the BIKE app (iTunes and Google Play) or the print edition in the DK shop reorder - while stocks last:
