2025 XC Bike & Equipment Thread

The only electronic thing that is a straight up loss is the reverb seat-post. It’s no better than a cabled dropper and weighs twice as much.

But pro riders ride what the company wants them to ride so that we go out and buy a reverb at MSRP.

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I‘d attribute the bikes getting heavier mainly to the courses getting rougher. My 120 SID Ultimate FA is over 300g heavier than my 2020 Fox SC for example. XX SL might be a bit heavier than XX1 eagle but I assume not by much and it seems to work better for a lot of folks. Seems like weight isn’t really a consideration after a certain point. I was surprised to see the vast majority of weighed bikes in that pinkbike article to be around 10kg and those frames were mostly medium, small and extra small.

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Is this not the Gen 4 Top Fuel? How do you see it is different from the Gen 4 Top Fuel?

Some non-sponsored people still use XX1 because it is faster than XX SL as well as lighter.

The improvement in suspension, tyres, inserts, frame designs (and size - every frame is now larger to accomodate the increased reach) etc make a difference to speed.

Reverbs are just crap.

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It should as the stepping is the same. I run the opposite. An Eagle AXS RD on an otherwise XTR drivetrain as I like the tooth distribution on the Shimano 10-51 cassettes more than old Eagle (thats one area where Sram finally took the feedback into account and mapped tooth distributions of the new Transmission cassette to be closely similar to Shimano now) and Hyperglide+ is really good and old Eagle AXS chain basically is the worst efficient chain there is (again, new Transmission remedied that).

So all in all - my recommendation would be to change your drive train over to Shimano completely or consider going Transmission. But again: just adding the new wireless XTR RD should work.

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Thanks for the reply. Been having issues with shifting and was thinking I needed to replace the derailleur and hanger or switching to either Transmission or the new XTR Wireless.

Situation got remedied last week as I came across a very good deal on a slightly used S-Works Epic 8 with Transmission and Flight Attendant I couldn’t pass up. The shifting is incredible on Transmission and a bigger improvement than I thought it would be. Same with Flight Attendant. I had 3pos lock out on my old Epic Evo which I loved and thought FA was a bit gimmicky until riding it a couple times. It is nuts how it adjusts and I don’t even think I will need to use the override to lock it out unless riding up out of the saddle on climbs to stretch. I think both Transmission and FA (and my guess XTR Wireless) have taken mountain bikes to another level. Makes me want to get Transmission on my gravel bike now!

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The only reason I’ve heard people are using XX1 AXS instead of Transmission is because they don’t want to spend the money on new drivetrain. I haven’t heard about anyone that actually downgraded from Transmission to AXS because of weight and shift speed.

Drivetrain efficiency not shift speed. The transmission chains are slow - you can run fast third party chains on xx1. It’s more common amongst gravel privateers. Pretty much everyone in the world cup in xco is sponsored for drivetrains.

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The T-Type chains are faster than the xx1 Eagle chains. Yes…YBN 12 speed chains for Eagle are faster than both but I wouldn’t stay on XX1 eagle after making the switch to T-Type which has much better shifting…especially under power. I was skeptical as well until I finally road T-Type and would never go back to XX1 Eagle at this point.

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I “downgraded” (well, upgrade for me) from XO Transmission back to XO1 mechanical. I guess I had a lemon but my shifting was noisy, clunky, sometimes wouldn’t shift to 7th gear, sometimes would lose tension half a crank before engaging… it was a mess and worse performance than my mechanical. Had two different shops tear down and re install. The SRAM guys in the Sea Otter tent also took a look and it was “all good.” So I saved a pound and went back. I did like the clean look of less cables though.

I guess when you have one that works it’s amazing. Just hasn’t been my experience and at how expensive they are, can’t buy a new one to find out.

Regarding transmission’s slow shifting, I only had an issue in XC when coming downhill then coming into a corner or sudden steep uphill (think like a V). You can get caught in a big gear and the crunching is horrendous. I am a bit curious if they’ve “sped up” shifting performance for the pros as it seems they’ve had a lot of dropped chains lately.

I do love flight attendant. For me, it’s the one thing worth the weight gain.

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excited to get this installed on my Epic 8

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https://www.pinkbike.com/news/spotted-trek-is-developing-a-flex-stay-top-fuel.html#cid3986944

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I found/saw this photo today - anyone else have more spy shots?

vs

If the image is accurate - it is more aesthetically pleasing to me.

6-12 months before we see this?

Rumor has it on 6/18-6/20 they will announce it. The picture I posted above was using AI to search for the product and a website having it listed.

When I went to the website it was hidden

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isn’t a single bottle a really NO at this point? Seems like a deal breaker for me

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I’ve been on Transmission on my XC bike for about a year and have been riding old Eagle AXS on the gravel bike until about a month ago when I got a new frame with UDH and upgraded to Transmission. Transmission isn’t life changing, but man was I happy to have it on the gravel bike also. It’s just shifts better and has easier setup when swapping chainrings (adjustment easier on transmission vs. screwing with B gap). As with many things, life would have been totally fine without the upgrade, but once you have experienced it…

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It was a deal breaker for me back in 2019, these days it’s absurd.

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I agree, I haven’t had much problems with the first AXS the same way I don’t have with Red on my road bike, but T-Type and the new XPLR makes setup and maintenance so much easier than anything I have used before, shifting has always been spot on, never had a problem except when I cut my chain one link too long than what SRAM told me to :smile:

Here it is! https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/bikes/mountain-bikes/trail-mountain-bikes/top-fuel/top-fuel-rsl-gen-4/p/61644