Which drivetrain?

[Sind]

Hi,

If you had a choice to run one of these on your eMTB, which would it be and why?

Shimano XT Deore Hyperglide+
Shimano XT Linkglide
SRAM GX Eagle

I've got an option to select one of these for my bike.

Thanks!

 

[RustyMTB]

You'll get a bunch of opinions. All I'll say is I've run all three & been happy with al of them. By far the best thing to get the best from on any drive train is to dial it in & keep it clean & lubed and check your chain stretch regularly. Do that & you'll chug along nicely on base Deore or SX ime.

But if you held a gun to my head, I'd go XT & Linkglide.

 

[Sind]

You'll get a bunch of opinions. All I'll say is I've run all three & been happy with al of them. By far the best thing to get the best from on any drive train is to dial it in & keep it clean & lubed and check your chain stretch regularly. Do that & you'll chug along nicely on base Deore or SX ime.

But if you held a gun to my head, I'd go XT & Linkglide.

Thanks for that. Yes, I expect I'll get quite a few opinions and maybe some words of wisdom (like above).

 

[Tony4wd]

I've found Shimano shifting easier to keep in tune. If you with AXS wireless shifting that advantage disappears though.

 

[Plummet]

I just ripped off gx 12 speed ans replaced it with 11sp xt linkglide.

Gx lasted mw 1600km in the winter mud.

the full linkglide set up cost the same at a gx cassette and chain.

Linkglide shifts better and doesn't turn to shit in the mud.

I've got about 15 hours on the l8nk glide thus far.

 

[Bndit]

I have SLX on my Levo, now done over 3000km`s. Replaced chain every 1000km`s. Only problems so far crashing one derailleur and one hanger. If I had to replace whole drivetrain, I would go to XT linkglide because of price and would be able to change gear under load.

 

[RustyMTB]

I'm also an SLX fan, it's practically the same as XT at a much lower price. Linkglide for durability, chains regard as disposable & change them whenerver you need to.

 

[Padge]

Go with linkglide.
Had XT and Giant Reign and Trance. Chains just didn't last.
No amount of cleaning and lubing will overcome the chain stretching and then wearing your cassette.

Chains for linkglide are so much cheaper too justifying regular replacement.
Gear change is better over the life of the chain.

 

[mustclime]

Do yourself a favor, avoid high end cassettes, they tend to have alloy in the larger cogs that wears faster than steel. You you may have free hub body’s compatibility issues.

 

[Sind]

I was not expecting that much interest/support for Linkglide! Thanks all.

Just to throw a spanner in the works, I'm also considering SRAM GX Transmission as it seems durable and robust. It does come at a cost though and a different proposition.

 

[ebsocalmtb]

I run gx axs on my rise. I have run slx in the past. Wear rate for both of those was the same in my experience. FWIW, my experience is that the cassettes typically wear out the 10-18t cogs well before the 20-52t cogs... so IMO, there is no reason to avoid a higher end cassette other then budget and the questionable decision to roast a 400 dollar cassette on an ebike.

That being said... I have experience with all of the choices you have outlined.
-XT/SLX Hyperglide - These are solid choices and to me are more or less the same for performance. I find hyperglide shifting under load to be slightly better then gx eagle mechanical, about on par with a well setup gx axs setup, if not maybe a smidge better. This is likely the goldilocks setup in terms of cost/performance/weight.

-GX Eagle - I prefer sram drivetrains to shimano, so this is my preference over SLX/XT but that's very subjective. I have experienced slightly better life/wear out of the GX eagle setups over XT/SLX because the sram chains are of better quality (x01 specifically). I am quite attentive about chain replacements and I find that I just simply get longer life out of the GX cassette as a result. That being said, I do find that the x01 cassettes do last just about 2x as long as a GX cassette (even on an ebike) and it does usually make them worth the money. I run x01 on my bike, and gx on my wife's bike.

-GX Transmission - I have this on my enduro bike. I personally would be cautious about what bikes/frames/hub combo's I would utilize gx transmission on. IME, frames and hubs that have tolerance issues can have persistent issues with transmission and because of that I would hesitate putting this on a flexy or mediocre tolerance frame. It works flawlessly on my gen 6 santa cruz nomad and on my friends heckler SL. There are however other bikes within our riding crew that have less then optimum frame qa/qc and tolerance and questionable hubs that have issues. shifting under load aspect of transmission is truly impressive and a game changer to how you shift and ride the bike... but I've been riding bikes a long time, and mechanical empathy for the drivetrain is written into my thumb so this feature is a luxury and not a revelation.

-XT Linkglide - Truly impressive for the price and so far, is showing signs of ultimate durability with the limited mileage my buddy has on his setup (600 miles or so). Shifting under load is about 80% as good as hyperglide (which is quite good btw) and works just as well, but is just a bit more clunky. This is likely the smart choice for ebike drivetrains for all of us... that being said, I'll stick with GX Eagle because it's lighter and is shared between (nearly) all of the bikes in my stable and I just like it... but I should likely just run linkglide on my ebike and be done with it. I'm not however, a smart man.

 

[High Rock Ruti]

Hi,

If you had a choice to run one of these on your eMTB, which would it be and why?

Shimano XT Deore Hyperglide+
Shimano XT Linkglide
SRAM GX Eagle

I've got an option to select one of these for my bike.

Thanks!

High Rock Ruti

Installed linkglide on 2021 Levo pro, we'll see? The claims of durability, low price, along with replaceable derailleur parts. About $400 installed.

Warm Regards Ruti