Bike Checks: Brook Macdonald & Laurie Greenland's Mondraker Summums - Crankworx Innsbruck 2020

 Never ask a woman her weight

 @stumphumper92: Laurie's a guy sooo...

 @cdbfree: Never ask a man his weight

 That's what I was wondering, is the new XTR better for downhill than the current Saint. Maybe it's a sponsorship thing

 @Smokey79: lighter and same bite

 Well that's definitely 10-speed Saint so my guess is not 9.

 @seraph: You can use a 10 speed derailleur on any amount of gears up to 10. You can, for example, use a Saint 10 spd derailleur on a 7 speed cassette as long as you set the limit screws accordingly.

 @dannyc87: Wrong. If you try to use a 10spd derailleur and 10spd shifter on a 7-8-9spd cassette, it won't work properly because the gear spacing is different. If you try use a 10spd Saint RD with a 7-8-9spd shifter that won't work properly either, because the pull ratio (pull ratio=the amount of movement from side to side of the derailleur relative to the amount of cable pulled) changed when 10spd MTB stuff came out (Dyna Sys). It would have worked in the 7-8-9spd days when everything used the same pull ratio, but that's not the case anymore, hasn't been for a while.

 @HollyBoni: that´s not what he meant though, you can remove any number of cogs you please from 10speed cassette and use the rest, just like most shimano sponsored racers have been doing in the past few year.

 @Mondbiker: Sure, I didn't know that's what he meant, because to me a 7spd cassette means a "regular" 7spd cassette, not a 10spd cassette with 3 cogs removed. But maybe i'm being pedantic.

 @HollyBoni: I use a 10spd Saint derailluer and 10 spd Saint shifter with an E Thirteen 7 spd cassette and it works fine.
I think most DH bikes are 7 spd these days and that's one way to set it up.

SRAM and Shimano use different pull ratios but if you use a Shimano shifter with a Shimano derailluer then this is not a problem.

 @dannyc87: That e13 7spd cassette is not a regular 7spd cassette. It takes 10-11spd chains and has different cog spacing than regular 7spd cassettes. The difference in cog spacing between a regular 7spd cassette and a 10spd cassette is about 1mm (and the cogs themselves are thicker/wider as well on 7spd). That's a lot. If you tried to use a regular 7spd cassette (or 8 or 9spd) with 10spd everything else, it wouldn't work. It would barely shift or wouldn't shift at all, the chain would skip etc. (speaking from experience).
The DH specific SRAM 7spd cassette doesn't use the "regular" 7spd spacing either.

"SRAM and Shimano use different pull ratios but if you use a Shimano shifter with a Shimano derailluer then this is not a problem."

Haha, I wish it was that simple, it would make life so much easier. Sadly it isn't that simple. In the Shimano world, the pull ratio WAS the same on 6-7-8-9 and 10spd road. When 10spd MTB stuff came out, they introduced a new pull ratio, Dyna Sys. 11spd MTB stuff uses a slightly different pull ratio as well, but the difference is minimal, you can mix 10 and 11spd MTB stuff. When 11spd road stuff came out, they introduced a new pull ratio again. Don't have info about 12spd.

SRAM used the same pull ratio (1:1) on 7-8-9spd. Then they came out with a new one (Exact Actuation) on 10spd, then they mixed it up again on 11spd (X-actuation) and I think 12spd is slightly different as well.

So long story short, no, you can't use any SRAM derailleur with any SRAM shifter, and you can't use any Shimano rear derailleur with any Shimano shifter because there are big differences in pull ratios, not just between the two brands, but in-house as well. I know, seems dumb, but it's true.

 Just like Brendon and Bruni and then what happened?

 Sponsorship obligations?

 @nojzilla: he tries, he loves...

 Either the 29" bikes improved enough or their sponsor stopped making 27.5" bikes and refused to make a custom edition.

 could possibly be a fork/suss sponsor wanting to promote the latest 29" model?

 Negative