Even with the release of the new Shimano XT and Deore, I decided to go with the 9200 XTR RD/Shifter paired with a 9101 cassette. I managed to find a coupon for the new XTR also, which definitely helped, but honestly, I was already leaning toward it even without the discount.
What really sealed the deal for me was the weight savings—just the rear derailleur and shifter alone are about 50g lighter than Deore and 30g lighter than XT. Plus, Deore lacks the double-click feature and adjustability I was looking for. XT came close in price, but for the marginal difference, the XTR just made more sense to me.
Can’t wait to get it installed and hit the trails!
That’s the 51t cassette isn’t? I’m keen to try to the short cage derailleur setup with the 45t cassette, did you consider it? Would also have given you additional weight saving.
The 9101 cassette is the updated 9100 cassette from the XTR mechanical group where they made some slight changes to the original XTR 9100 cassette.
Everything I have read or seen has said the 9101 is the same exact cassette as the 9200 except the 9101 has the top (3) black and they changed that on the 9200 cassette so it looks nicer longer.
I was able to source a 9101 new for half the cost of a 9200 so that’s why I went that way.
In regards to staying long cage and a 10-51 is simply because I need that much gearing for the riding/racing I do. I’m not w/kg enough to go with only a 45t. That’s me though and some may find that cassette to be phenomenal!
I also picked up a 9101 cassette as well in anticipation of this launch. It was $235 on Amazon, shipped from the UK.
I get that they jacked the price of the 9200 cassette because SRAM raised the price ceiling for everyone, but they look to be functionally identical minus the color.
The 9–45 cassette is meant to be paired with smaller chainrings, and since the gear range of both cassettes is essentially identical (500 % vs. 510 %), you could go either way without making your life harder.
I’m surprised Shimano didn’t just go for the 9–45 only, because it is lighter and offers virtually the same range.
I’ve found that a 34 x 10/51 setup works perfectly for all the racing I do. But I also have to remember that my bike isn’t just a race machine—it’s my everything bike. So when I head out west for those all-day climbs where racing isn’t the priority and I just want a ton of gearing, I’d definitely consider switching to something like a 28T or 30T chainring with my dinner plate cassette on the rear still.
Our XTR Di2 drivetrain comes in at 1,717g with the standard 10-51T cassette and beefier Enduro cranks. If you went with the smaller 9-45T cassette and Race cranks, you can expect the complete weight to drop to around 1,629g. To put those numbers into perspective, the SRAM XX SL Transmission is lighter at 1,558g.
SRAM is lighter but it’s not massive and it’s not 300g. For XC I’d find the 9-45 interesting as I’m never in the 10t on a trail personally - only in the middle of the casette. I hope SRAM brings their 13s XPLR 10-46 to the MTB world sooner than later or just outright merges those two groups together and calls it offroad. The only distinction is the XDR freehub body that’s keeping that from happening. With Shimano both groups use the microspline freehub so you can go either 9-45 or 10-51 on your Gravel/MTB which is another plus for Shimano imho (all my bikes are SRAM btw).
Funnily enough I bumped into Mick Ross from Flow riding the new XTR around Mogo at Christmas/January time. We rode around for a bit and I showed him a couple of the old trails he was looking for. I noticed the new group and he asked me not to look too hard at it.
To add to this - the XTR entire group can gain ground at the crank level. If you are someone like me who runs a RaceFace Next SL, you will come out less than the XXSL.
