neons97

Shimano clearly wants to win the OEM spec war with the new SLX/XT/XTR to go up against the NX/GX/XX1 OEM spec domination for the last couple of years. And Shimano is doing the old Coca-Cola approach..."If you want to sell Coke...you must stock all my other lines in your fridge..." Hence the licencing of MicroSpline supposedly only to OEM hub/wheel suppliers. They want total domination on a bike...drivetrain, wheels, brakes, etc...they want to shut SRAM completely out of a build spec... So...Shimano appears to ONLY be going after OEM new-builds with these kits. They clearly are not going after the AfterMarket upgrader (like me). They don't care if I upgrade my XTR9000 to XTR9100. They want me to get XTR9100 through buying an all-new bike only. Because it makes absolutely no sense for me to upgrade to XTR9100 if it involves a new (non-matching) rear hub, and building up that rear wheel. My guess is...Shimano's strategy for AfterMarket probably is probably only kicking in after they saturate the OEM market.

You lose a lot of the benefit of the new Shimano 12-speed groupo by running the Sram Cassette. Part of what makes the shifting quicker both up and down are the all-new ramps in the cassette, mated to the special Shimano chain. That's what makes this group special and superior to SRAM (supposedly). There's reports out there that using the new 12-spd XTR Cassette with any aftermarket chain "works"...but the shifting speed up and down are noticably less crisp. Shimano states that with XTR, you need to run the XTR ring up front. This is technically correct. This is ONLY because the master link of the new 12-speed chain is too narrow for a normal ring. If you use a SRAM/KMC/ETC. master link on the Shimano XTR 12-speed chain, it will work on any normal narrow-wide chainring. However, if you're just looking for a 12-speed setup, without the shifting benefits...then frankenstein the system...but why bother...just wait till the stuff is available.

Someone messed up the math in that table. SLX Drivetrain adds up to $350.95 individually, but table states $409.93 SLX Complete adds up to $793.90 individually, but the table states $819.89 XT Drivetrain adds up to $599.94, but table states $622.93 XT Complete adds up to $1187.89, but table states $1,148.89 The SLX Drivetrain is the real winner here at $350 USD with crankset with only a 101g total penalty to the XT versions. If a local Canadian Bike Shop actually stocks and sells a complete SLX Drivetrain for ~$470 CAD (at today's exchange rate), then there's little reason to go hunting for these parts overseas. Those brakes look quite a bit over-priced vs. the rest of the grouppo: SLX: $410 USD for brakes + rotors XT: $520 USD for brakes + rotors