![10 vs 11 speed cassette 10 vs 11 speed cassette](https://i0.heartyhosting.com/www.bikemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/CS-M4100-10_11-46T_1-scaled.jpg)
If 11-speed didn’t quite kill the front derailleur, SRAM’s 12-speed was the headshot that finished them off.Īnd you know the folks at Shimano weren’t just sitting on their hands during all this, right? Of course not, they were working on stuff the whole time it just took ‘em a bit longer. The new Eagle drivetrain offered a wild-for-the-time 50-tooth large cog and a 500-percent range. SRAM’s 11-speed drivetrain was around for four years when 12-speed XX1 was released in 2016 under the Eagle name. SRAM's single-ring, 11-speed XX1 was released in 2012 and completely changed the drivetrain landscape. This includes the completely new rear derailleur that was designed around a single chainring, the narrow-wide chainring tooth shape that helps to keep the chain on, and the XD freehub that allowed for the 10-42 tooth cassette and its 420-percent range.
![10 vs 11 speed cassette 10 vs 11 speed cassette](https://rotorbike.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Captura-de-pantalla-2020-03-10-a-las-11.33.22.png)
Truth be told, SRAM's current Eagle 12-speed drivetrain is only possible due to solutions that were first proven by that XX1 11-speed setup. Clever mountain bikers around the globe had been building their own single-ring drivetrains for years, of course, but this was the first off-the-shelf, purpose-built system designed around just one chainring. To talk 12-speed, we'll first need to take one step backward to May of 2012 when SRAM released their 11-speed XX1 single-ring drivetrain. So, what’s the deal with these 12-speed drivetrains? What did they give us, and what did they cost us? But despite comment sections filled with varying degrees of suspicion and discontent any time another cog is added to the stack, here we are in 2020 with 12-speed cassettes that I don’t think many of us were asking for.
![10 vs 11 speed cassette 10 vs 11 speed cassette](http://www.sjscycles.com/supersize/52699.jpg)
There’s one topic that’s almost guaranteed to earn a collective groan from mountain bikers everywhere: That the newest drivetrain that has yet one more gear.