pqken said:
I have the M960...as far as I can tell. Bought it about 4 years ago. Didn't know the replacement cost would be so high.
The 112BCD Downhill XTR rings seem to show up on eBay with regularity ... you should be able to pick one up for less than $30 ... it is one of the few rings I know that you can readily drill to mount onto your XTR spider -- 44t is the smallest, AFAIK.
The OTHER option (also, readily available) is to buy a BMX ring which is already drilled for 110BCD & 130BCD. The "outer" portion of the ring is often a solid plate, so those can also be re-drilled to mount onto your 144BCD (?) XTR spider.
The BMX chainrings will weigh less than the XTR Downhill rings AND should be more readily available. NEITHER will be pinned-or-ramped and the tooth profile will not facilitate shifting (the latter probably isn't a 'big deal' ... and, you can always file the tips of a few of the teeth to match a Shimano ring's uneven teeth profile if you find the shifting balky ... if shifting is balky, try moving the front derailleur cage 1mm higher, first).
With either type of ring, you may have to file/grind away some excess material to get the ring to fit on the spider's shoulder ... use your current XTR ring as a template -- tape the OLD ring to the 'new' ring ... use some spray paint to over-cast the areas to be drilled/removed.
This is a very do-able DIY project AND a lot cheaper than buying one of the XTR rings that you need.
FWIW. Now that I know better, and because the spiders are no longer interchangeable (beginning around 2000, I guess), I would only recommend an XT crank and leave the XTR for the sponsored riders EVEN THOUGH the newest generation of XTR cranks supposedly uses standard size rings, now.