Something up the sleeve

Shimano have just launched their site for the new XTR due out in October. And as everyone has been speculating there is a new double XTR....the one crank to rule them all!

Shimano are going to be offering XTR in two options a trail build with dyna-sys and triple crankset and a racer build.



However there are a couple of things I'm not liking. First is a propriety bolt pattern again. 88bcd x 4 bolt (SRAM is 120/80). Secondly this limits the minimum chainring size offered to 40x28. Now this crank is being marketed as a "racers" crank, but we all know that even a 28x36 is very tall gear. SRAM OTOH have their 26x39 and paired with a 36 gives a gearing range that almost equals a standard triple setup.

The crank has been designed with a narrower Q factor and tweakwd chainline to 48.8mm to get rid of the normal MTB stance feel.

The other thing I'm really sad about is that Shimano have abandoned their dual control system on the 2011 range. I am a real fan of this coming from a road background the braking and shifting is just natural and very "road like".

Everything else in the range has been re-jigged as well including calipers, cassette, chain, derailleurs, and wheels.

All up it looks as though this is going to give SRAM a good run for their money in terms of weight and performance. Also Shimano don't release new products until they are spot on so it should be good to go straight out of the box.