- When Deore XT was first
introduced back in 1983,
Shimano got the formula
right the first time round.
It was simple, it was
strong, it was dependable
and it was durable, which
quickly gained it's status
as the workhorse of off-road
bicycle transmissions.
Skip forward over three decades
and we have this;
the brand new Shimano Deore
XT M8100 transmission.
Which takes that workhorse backbone
and brings it bang up to date
with everything you could possibly need.
Every requirement and every style,
including a 12 speed cassette.
(slow electronic music)
To make this video,
Shimano sent me this box
loaded with the latest Deore XT.
So I can talk you through
all of the technical features
of this extremely versatile groupset.
Now we've already checked out XTR
which we know is the racing,
the super premium transmission
and we already know that SLX offers
a no nonsense strategy with unquestionably
great value for money.
However, it's XT that sits in the middle
and really does take the best
of both of these groupsets,
offering you all out durability.
Now let's start with the
chainset offerings available,
of which there are two,
and they're based around
the same Hollowtech two constructed crank,
which is the latest
version of Shimano's forged
and hollow design, which
is the optimum way of
making a crank as light
as they can make it
in a realistic fashion
that delivers on both cost
and durability.
They're very stiff and very
effective for power transfer.
The crank arms themselves are
available in 165, 170, 175
and a whopping 180mm length.
Let's take a look at the
chain ring offerings.
Now they're are two-by and
one-by options available.
The two-by has a 26 and
a 36 tooth setup on there
and it's also convertible to
accept a single chainring.
So it's actually quite good
value doing it that way round.
With the one-by setup you can only run it
on a one-by fashion.
The chainrings themselves
are made from steel
and they've got an alloy spider on them
to just keep the weight down a little bit.
When you wear out the chainring,
you replace the whole thing.
It goes straight on, it's a direct mount
and that also does mean that you can fit
a lighter weight XTR version on there
should you fancy, at a later date.
As far as chainring size goes,
they range from 28 up to 36 teeth
and they weigh from 28, 608 grammes
up to 660 for that 36.
On the two-by setup
there are two different
Q factor options available.
There's 172 and 178mms
which have 48.8 and 51.8mms
as a chainline respectively.
As far as one-by goes there's
three different options for Q factors.
There's 172, 178 and a whopping 181
to suit that new Super Boost.
They are 52, 55 and 56.5mms
for the chainline respectively.
Now it's time for the cassette.
Now look at this bad boy.
It shares the same
technology that we've seen
on the XTR but it brings
it to the XT level.
It fits to the bike using the exact same
micro spline system which
was specifically designed
to suit the needs of the high
torque 12 speed application.
There's no cutting
issues with this system.
Now the cassette looks
very similar to the XTR
although you might notice it's two tone
rather than three tone.
With the XTR, it had some titanium,
some aluminium and some steel involved
on the XT one to keep the durability up
but to keep their price down.
The top two sprockets
are made from aluminium
to make sure they're nice and light.
And the rest, which you're more
likely to spend more time in
are made from steel, to keep it nice
and dependable and durable.
There are two sizings available.
There's 10, 45 and there's 10, 51.
10, 45 uses the rhythm step gearing
so there's far closer jumps
between the sprockets.
Now this is something that
the racers were asking for,
XC racers, Epic racers, things like that,
because they wanted to be able to
maintain their sort of
cadence between gear changes.
The 10, 51 however, is a bit
more of a wide range spread
as you'd imagine going from the tiny 10
all out to that colossal 51.
The 10, 45 is compatible with
one-by and two-by setups,
whereas the 10, 51 is
exclusive for a one-by.
Like the XTR 12 speed cassette,
the XT cassette uses Hyperglide Plus.
Now Hyperglide was a really
clever invention from Shimano
and essentially it enabled
half the chain to derail
without the rest of the
chain totally derailing from
the previous sprocket when shifting up.
What this meant was you could climb up
whatever you wanted, you
can keep that power down,
you could cleanly change gear.
Really really good and
at the time when they
developed it, it was absolutely fantastic
and the shifting was far smoother
than other options available.
Now Hyperglide Plus takes this
and applies it in reverse.
So as well as having
a super clean shifting
under power when you're changing gear
up through the cassette,
you could now have it
when you're punching back down.
Which means when you're sprinting
and you wanna bang through those gears,
you can do that and the shifting will
be punchy, accurate and smooth.
And looking up close you
can see how this works.
You can see how the chain can be pulled up
onto these profiled teeth here
using these shifting ramps.
And now you can get the same principle
when banging back down through
the gears again into a higher gear.
Really cool piece of design from Shimano
and it uses the same sort of
spider profile as that XTR.
Really really cool.
Now like the XTR there's
a dedicated 12 speed chain
and it's got it's own dedicated link.
You can't use this with anything else from
the Shimano range, has to
be for 12 speed exclusively.
Now the XTR one is
about 8 grammes lighter,
it has the hollow pins.
Whereas the Shimano XT ones actually
have solid pins on there.
Now they've got the longer
inside lengths on them.
This is known as a dynamic
chain engagement system.
Essentially it's to help
the chain sit much better
on the sprockets and on the chainring.
Essentially what they're
trying to reduce is vibration
because vibration equals noise
and noise equals friction.
These give the smoothest
and most accurate shifting
with the least amount of friction
that Shimano has done to date.
And finally, something to note
is the directional design.
So make sure you don't
instal these upside down
or you won't be enjoying all the benefits.
And for the hubs themselves which are also
available as wheelsets but we have
the hubs here to show you,
there's a few things
that you need to know.
They've got Centrelock on them,
they've got the Micro Spline system
of course 'cause they're
exclusive now for 12 speed.
That is the same for
SLX, for XT and for XTR.
They're available in 148
and 157 Super Boost sizing
and on the inside there's
two particularly cool things.
Now with the XTR, when they first launched
they had the silent system.
They've slightly refined that now.
It's not quite silent
anymore but it's near enough.
It's as quiet as you're gonna get.
The faster you go, the quieter it is.
They've got an improved spring mechanism
for re-engagement on there.
It's now got 100 points of engagement
with 7.2 degrees between those points.
It feels insane.
And the final thing about
these that really pleases me
is they use classic cup and cone bearings.
There's no cartridge bearings inside these
which means they're easy to service
and they're gonna keep
on rolling really smooth
no matter how long you ride them for.
Now the derailleur looks
very similar to the XTR
which is no bad thing,
although I've gotta say, I think this has
the slight edge on it.
Looking a bit stealthier and
a bit more business-like.
Which of course that's
what XT is all about.
It's the workhorse.
There's 13 tooth pulleys at both ends of
the jockey cage there
and there's also a rubber
bumper on the front there
just to silence it on certain bike designs
where that's called for.
The clutch system is revised.
It's lower friction, it still has
the on and off dial on there.
There are two options available for
the different capacity derailleurs.
There's one to suit the 10, 45
and there's another to suit the bigger 51.
Now the front derailleur
comes in side swing only,
there's high and low
offerings for mount position.
There's direct mount and there's
classic clamp on as well.
Now the shifters themselves
are really quite cool
and there's a few different options.
There's the standard bar clamp model
and there's the I-Spec II
model that I've got here.
Now there's 14mms of lateral,
like side to side
movement available there.
So you can really tailor
the position on the bars
depending on how in-board you like
your break levers to be.
There's also 20 degrees of
rotation available to you
so you can really tailor
the actual feel on the bars.
Again, I like to run mine quite far down
so this really suits me being
able to customise that feel.
Now unlike the XTR
ones, the paddle on here
for your thumb is quite a lot bigger
and it's got a bigger rubberized
textured grip on there
so really good for all round use.
No sort of, accidentally
slipping when you change gear.
You just reach out and it's there.
Now for shifting back down again
it's a multi-release that
goes in either direction
which is really good 'cause some people
wanna do it with their thumb,
some people use it as a
trigger with their finger
and you can also shift two gears at once.
The second click is slightly
firmer than that first click
which means that's great 'cause you're
not gonna accidentally
shift two gears at once.
It's there if you want it
and if not you can just
trigger down one at a time.
Nice system.
Now if you're running the two-by system
you have the option of
having the mono lever
which is, I think, really cool.
Essentially it's like a double tap
so you can shift both ways by
the way that you trigger that lever.
I hear you can also use that
to operate lockout for shocks
which is quite cool because they also do
the dropper post remote.
So you can have quite a cool set up
taking care of everything by just using
a full Shimano setup.
Now for the breaks there's
two options available to you.
Unlike XTR where you have two
different calliper options
then two different lever options,
there's a single lever option
which is the more durable one.
Which really reflects
the XT workhorse theory.
Now the lever itself has the
same in-board mounting system
and it has that same support on there
which makes it feel
really stiff on the bars.
It also means you can get it into
a really good position
for one finger breaking
and aggressive riding
without getting in the way
of all your other controls
like your dropper post,
your shock lockouts et cetera.
Now the lever blades themselves have
the Servo Wave feature on them
which increases the
amount of power they get
the nearer the lever gets to the bar.
Which means when you're
really squeezing on
those breaks to slow down,
those times where you really need to,
you're gonna get increased power.
Now when it comes to the calliper,
there's two options that are available.
There's the lighter duty
and lighter weight two piston option
or the much more powerful
four piston option.
It comes as standard with finned pads
but there's various other pads available.
There's metal pads and there's resin pads
that have a new, quieter formula
available on them as well.
Bleeding with all Shimano
breaks is a one way process.
And the callipers on both the two part
and the four part design now
have a faster piston retraction
which means they feel a lot more sensitive
when you're breaking.
Less fatigue on your hands,
more power at the business end.
The rotas available are the freezer design
which is essentially a sandwich.
It's steel breaking
surfaces sandwiching around
an alloy fin design, which
both keeps the weight down,
keeps the breaking power up
and of course it dissipates
that heat a bit better.
The only real difference between these
and the XTR is the XTR
have a special coating
on those heat dissipating fins
to further dissipate that heat.
There's also standard six
belt options available
but they lack those heat dissipating fins.
Well there we go, that is
the brand new Shimano Deore
XT M8100 transmission.
I think it's pretty impressive.
I hope you guys thing the same.
Let us know what you think of
this in the comments below.
If you wanna see what
this stuff is like out on
the trail against the SLX transmission,
click down there for a video with Blake
and he'll do exactly that.
And if you wanna see the geek edition
on that dreamy XTR transmission,
click over there and if you like Shimano
and you like 12 speed give us a thumbs up.
