XT 8100 with Sram Cassette?

**Tailwind** · 07-06-2020, 06:57 PM

I have a few questions I'm going to clump together.

I bought my wife a used Spot Mayhem this Spring with GX Eagle. For the life of me, I can't get it to shift smoothly. I've replaced cables & housing (optislick), chain (XO1) and cassette (1295). It shifts 'pretty well' in the stand but on the the trail is just clunky and often will has a few really bad scary sounding shifts per ride. I have had no issues getting XO1 stuff to be flawless in the past. First question, it seems like a lot of people complain about GX Eagle, does it just tend to slowly break down over a few thousand miles? She has put about 1000 miles on the bike since we bought it and the drivetrain likely has a few thousand total miles. I notice a lot of play in the B knuckle and the shifter still is a little stiff even with new cables/housing.

Second question, has anyone run a Shimano 8100 shifter and der with Sram Cassettes and Chains? I don't quite want to shell out the money for a new crankset (she has a Sram Crank, meaning no Shimano rings), cassette, and Driver Body. At that point I might just try AXS... or new Eagle stuff.

We're leaving on the Colorado Trail in a few weeks, so I'm not overly tempted to watch it slowly degrade over 550 miles of riding...

**Whiteroom_Guardian** · 07-06-2020, 08:24 PM

Even at XO or XX1 level the stuff just dies on me after like 1000-1500 miles and the shifting just slowly gets worse and worse.

I recently made the full jump to XT 12spd after running SRAM for years. It's worth it. The shifting is just so much better and it's all in the cassette. You can't fake it with XT shifters and a SRAM cassette unfortunately. I looked into it.

I converted my rear hub to micro spline (5 minute job on a DT Swiss 350 hub) and found a super nice Wolftooth front ring for Shimano 12spd tooth profile that fits a SRAM direct mount X01 crankset.

Make the switch. The shifting is amazing.

**Tailwind** · 07-06-2020, 09:16 PM

Good thoughts.

I had first generation XO1 that lasted 4000 miles with zero issues. Things I’ve bought since have not held up at all.

I hadn’t considered that there were rings that would allow a SRAM crank to work with Shimano stuff. That might make it a little easier to justify.

Originally Posted by Whiteroom_Guardian

Even at XO or XX1 level the stuff just dies on me after like 1000-1500 miles and the shifting just slowly gets worse and worse.

I recently made the full jump to XT 12spd after running SRAM for years. It's worth it. The shifting is just so much better and it's all in the cassette. You can't fake it with XT shifters and a SRAM cassette unfortunately. I looked into it.

I converted my rear hub to micro spline (5 minute job on a DT Swiss 350 hub) and found a super nice Wolftooth front ring for Shimano 12spd tooth profile that fits a SRAM direct mount X01 crankset.

Make the switch. The shifting is amazing.

**Whiteroom_Guardian** · 07-06-2020, 09:25 PM

Originally Posted by Tailwind

Good thoughts.

I had first generation XO1 that lasted 4000 miles with zero issues. Things I’ve bought since have not held up at all.

I hadn’t considered that there were rings that would allow a SRAM crank to work with Shimano stuff. That might make it a little easier to justify.

https://www.wolftoothcomponents.com/...e-chain#loaded

**Boissal** · 07-07-2020, 10:07 AM

Originally Posted by Tailwind

I hadn’t considered that there were rings that would allow a SRAM crank to work with Shimano stuff. That might make it a little easier to justify.

That's what I'm now running on my Intense which came with a full SRAM drivetrain (Eagle GX cassette/derailleur/shifter and Trutativ Stylo cranks). I swapped the freehub body on the DT wheels (as WG said it's a 2 minute $70 job) and replaced cassette/derailleur/shifter with the new XT stuff. I kept the Stylo cranks and my Garbaruk oval ring which is compatible with both Eagle and HG chains (despite the tooth profile being a bit different when you compare a SRAM ring with Shimano one). The shifting is completely flawless, better than it ever was with the Eagle drivetrain, so even if I'm losing a bit of efficiency by not using a dedicated Shimano ring (or the Wolftooth one WG linked) it was a very worthy upgrade.

**Dee Hubbs** · 07-07-2020, 10:16 AM

Originally Posted by Tailwind

I hadn’t considered that there were rings that would allow a SRAM crank to work with Shimano stuff. That might make it a little easier to justify.

North Shore Billet makes a great Shimano HG12 ring for SRAM direct mount cranks.
North Shore Billet Sram 1x12 HG12 Shimano direct mount chainring

**snowday** · 07-07-2020, 10:26 AM

Originally Posted by Dee Hubbs

North Shore Billet makes a great Shimano HG12 ring for SRAM direct mount cranks.
North Shore Billet Sram 1x12 HG12 Shimano direct mount chainring

North Shore makes some nice quality rings....running a 12 speed ring on 8000 cranks without issue. Nice guys to talk shop with as well if you have questions.

**Dee Hubbs** · 07-07-2020, 10:30 AM

Originally Posted by snowday

North Shore makes some nice quality rings....running a 12 speed ring on 8000 cranks without issue. Nice guys to talk shop with as well if you have questions.

And almost half the price of the Wolftooth.