New Shimano XT M8000 Drive Train

It is April 5th and there is still 18" of snow in my home town of Haliburton. I hope the snow leaves soon since my race season is fast approaching. In preparation for my race season I was down at my sponsor Frog Cycles installing a new drive train on my bike. I have been using a Shimano XTR 2x10 drive train for 3 years and it was time for an upgrade. There are so many different drive trains in today's market that it can make it very difficult to decide which one to go with. I chose a Shimano XT M8000 1x11 drive train. I picked Shimano since I have rode their drive trains ever since I started into cycling and I really like how they operate. I was tempted to go with XTR but the XT drive train is way cheaper and more durable then XTR. The only main difference between XT and XTR is the weight and that isn't huge.

I will also be running a new XT brake system which are great. The levers are very smooth and they grab extremely well. I also just love the new 11 spd rear shifter, it is very positive and the two way release is awesome. The whole system was very easy to set up. It is great how the rear shifter cable is pre stretched so once you have it set up the first time you don't have to re-adjust it.

I can't wait to see how my new drive train will handle on the race course and how it endures the abuse of racing. I will do a post on how the system handles the next couple of months of hard racing and what the difference is between a 2x10 and 1x11 drive train.

Keep checking back to see how my race season is going.

Posted By: Nick Emsley

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