SRAM Goes 12-speed, Shimano XT Goes Electronic

SRAM Goes 12-speed

SRAM has officially announced their new 12-speed groupset! Called "Eagle," the key feature of the announcement is the massive 10-50 tooth cassette with a huge 500% range. That's quite a bit more than the 10-42 tooth's 420% range and even more than a 2x10's 478% range.

We've had a couple of customers specifically avoid 1x11 when buying a new bike because of it's limited range compared to 2x10. It's a legitimate concern on 29ers with that large wheel that skews the whole gear range. But, SRAM's 12-speed should completely eliminate that problem.

We don't know prices yet, these early iterations won't be cheap, but surely the 10-50T will eventually trickle down to the cheaper stuff in the same way that 1x11 has.

Shimano XT Goes Electronic and SLX Goes 11-speed

Shimano's 11-speed XT groupset will soon be available in electronic Di2! Besides just going electronic, a cool thing with XT Di2 (M8050 is the designation) is that it will be Bluetooth capable, allowing you to pair your phone with the Di2 controller and update shifting preferences on the trail.

There's also a new 11-46T cassette that will soon be available, increasing overall gear range over the 11-42T that was initially launched with XT 11-speed. XT Di2 will also be available in 2x11.

Also, 11-speed has made its way down to SLX, Shimano's mid-range groupset. It'll be designated M7000 and will come in 1x11 with a 11-42T cassette or 2x11 with a 11-40T cassette. XT 11-speed was already a super good value, so we imagine SLX will show up in quite a few 2017 bikes.