A few upgrade questions

jfry94

1. Cranks. I want to upgrade my sram s1400 chainset on my Jekyll to either xt or xtr, is xtr worth an extra £130 over xt. Or am I better getting xt cranks and going 1x with them. Or even staying with what I've got and going 1x

2. Brakes. I currently have Magura mt2 which I realy like but I need more power and better cooling. I've been looking at xt's with ice tech rotors. Are these going to be a good upgrade.


Cheers guys, happy new year.

rockmonkeysc

If you're changing the chain rings anyway you may as well just get SLX. There's an insignificant weight difference between SLX and XT cranks, all the weight saving of the XT crankset is in the chain rings.

jfry94

Would slx be better than what I have already? SRAM x7

rockmonkeysc

Better bottom bracket. Not sure what the weight and bolt pattern of the X7 cranks are but if they're ok the just get a Hope ceramic bottom bracket.

miceden

Not sure the benefits outweigh the price difference between XT and XTR... so I'd say the XT. But to throw another into the mix have you thought about Rotor 3D cranks? For around £170 you can get a 3D crankset with rings but excl BB, weighs in at around 620g excl BB for double crank.

No opinion on the XT brakes I'm afraid, magura man myself in that department.

The Rookie

The best way of getting brakes to cope with more heat is bigger discs, but yes the ice tech discs and pads are a good option. The other thing is technique, dragging your brakes is a really good way to overheat them, getting off them for a while allows them to cool, you only need to drag them lightly to guarantee cooking them.

rockmonkeysc

Didn't those Rotor cranks come out quite badly in the MBUK cranks test? SLX came out top, there's 20 grammes between SLX and XT including rings.

Caveman_Chris

Just fitted and bedded a pair of XTs using the original avid 5 rotors 180/160. Power is fantastic (I'm nudging 95kg) compared to the avids. No info on the cooling as of yet though.

jfry94

Cheers guys. I think I'm going to go 1x 10 with slx cranks hope retainer ring and a trex extender. As for brakes I'm going to go xt with the freeze ice tech rotors.

BloggingFit

As said not much between SLX and XT however if going 1x10 then there is a cosmetic difference between the two. SLX will show an unfinished silver surface on the spider where the big ring would normally be where as the XT one is colour coded and looks more seamless. Functionally there is no difference. I would invest in an XTR Bottom Bracket too for the £30 cost as far better than the other Shimano ones.

XT Brakes are excellent.

njee20

No point changing your BB from the outset, may as well use what it comes with first.

BloggingFit

njee20 wrote:

No point changing your BB from the outset, may as well use what it comes with first.

True...

I didn't even notice the BB in the box with the last set of cranks I purchased until a month later when clearing out empty boxes and general crap.

Antm81

BloggingFit wrote:

SLX will show an unfinished silver surface on the spider where the big ring would normally be where as the XT one is colour coded and looks more seamless.

Not if using the cranks that come as 2x10 (M675 I believe) as all the rings fit behind the spider.