New ish XTR groupset?
- Thread starter the-waves
- Start date
XTR components can always be considered to be an excellent choice, but some of their cranks are decidely less desireable, IMO, than others ... that is, due to the proprietary BCD on most XTR cranks, a better choice would be an XT crank which uses the standard 104BCD -- it's all about chainring availability, or lack of ... and, even though the more recent XTR cranks use a 104BCD, the "hollow" chainrings strike me as being prohibitively expensive and using an off-the-shelf chainring in the future will be cosmetically jarring.
FWIW. I'm still not sold on the Hollowtech II BB ... I'm probably one of the few people who is a big fan of the Octalink BB.
Although I don't have one, yet, I am a fan of the "shadow" rear derailleur design -- no question about it, the parallelogram of the prior XTR rear derailleur model is definitely nicer looking than the recently introduced XTR rear derailleur's parallelogram.
BTW. I think the current XT "stuff" probably weighs the same as the Octalink generation XTR components that I have ...
Because the gap between XTR & XT seems to be greater than it was (or, maybe I'm just getting more frugal), I recommend that you give a few minutes of thought to ([COLOR= #808080]a blend of[/COLOR]) XT, of SLX, components ... with-or-without an XTR rear derailleur (by my observation, there really isn't that much differenece between the various front derailleurs ... particularly, when comparing "adjacent" groups).
Anyway, to finally answer you query, presuming you have checked the usual-suspects (e.g., COLORADO CYCLIST, EXCEL, etc.) then I think you may have to pick up the parts [COLOR= #008000]a la carte[/COLOR] off of eBay.
FWIW. I'm still not sold on the Hollowtech II BB ... I'm probably one of the few people who is a big fan of the Octalink BB.
Although I don't have one, yet, I am a fan of the "shadow" rear derailleur design -- no question about it, the parallelogram of the prior XTR rear derailleur model is definitely nicer looking than the recently introduced XTR rear derailleur's parallelogram.
BTW. I think the current XT "stuff" probably weighs the same as the Octalink generation XTR components that I have ...
Because the gap between XTR & XT seems to be greater than it was (or, maybe I'm just getting more frugal), I recommend that you give a few minutes of thought to ([COLOR= #808080]a blend of[/COLOR]) XT, of SLX, components ... with-or-without an XTR rear derailleur (by my observation, there really isn't that much differenece between the various front derailleurs ... particularly, when comparing "adjacent" groups).
Anyway, to finally answer you query, presuming you have checked the usual-suspects (e.g., COLORADO CYCLIST, EXCEL, etc.) then I think you may have to pick up the parts [COLOR= #008000]a la carte[/COLOR] off of eBay.
