I’m guessing most of you will have seen this thing on Pinkbike already but it turns out a couple have already shown up in New Zealand, and one is on Nelson legend Chris Mildon’s Santa Cruz Butcher. This is what he had to say.
“We need our climbing gears here in Nelson. There are too many great backcountry trails accessed via some pretty big and mostly steep hills. Factor in some dodgy knees and you sometimes get creative (and affordable) upgrade solutions. SRAM don’t recommend this set-up, but it works sweet. A bit of Beau and Luke Duke four cog retrofit via some quick thinking Italian CNC operation on the back, and that beautifully made and extremely light XX1(0) crankset on the front and you’ve got a ten speed version of the expensive but very desirable full XX1 drive train. Really no downsides with this, working crisply after being tested on our toughest trails, no dropped chains, great gear range and absolutely fit for purpose.”
“All up the General Lee four cog set (only for SRAM at this stage) cost $230, one week turnaround from Bagnoli Bikes in Castiglione della Pescaia. XX1 crank set selling at various local outlets for a range of different prices – pricing between $330 and $450 depending on where you can find one. Running with the existing ten speed drivetrain gear of chain, shifter, Type Two derailleur and the rest of the ten speed cassette block.”
Chris will be reporting back in after a month of Nelson riding, but if you can’t wait, I’d order one NOW!
It’s certainly a great idea, but looks like a cheapo ‘Mega- range’ cassette.
http://harriscyclery.net/product/shimano-14-34-thread-on-7-speed-freewheel-quotmegarangequot-778.htm
My first thought too Mark… but now I am interested and might see if I can get something similar machined up here!
Is the X9 a short cage, or medium?
What size is the chainring?
32 tooth chainring, medium cage derailleur.
been using with 34 and 36T MRP Bling rings and suits me just fine.One thing that disappointed me, though, was that they forgot to mention to use a spacer between the 2 parts of the adapter – they denied the need when questioned?
I only managed to fine tune the gears after i’ve fitted a tiny spacer… dumb italians :/
Ahhhh I knew it. I have just installed my general lee adapter yesterday and I have som gearshift problems and cant fine tune it probarly. And when I looked at the distance be the two pieces I thought they looked to be a bit to close to each other.How “thin” is this spacer.
No probs with mine. I used feeler gauges to check the chainring spacing once the block was installed and tightened up – it was fine and very even. The critical adjustment is the derailleur b screw, where you’ll need to set the top jockey wheel 4-5mm away from the 40T chainring. Much more than that and you’ll start to get skipping issues. Less than that and you’ll get a bit of shifting interference between the big rings.
Maybe I have too much clearance between those two but 4-5 mm aint much. But again the shifting issue is only between the two parts og the adaptor nowhere else.