My Shimano Deore 5100 cassette has the 51 tooth granny that the 12 speed cassettes have. Runs on a standard Shimano HG hub. See no need to upgrade my hubs, shifter, and cassette to add one extra cog.

 

For a long time the only reason to change was to get the range. If you don't need it, there's no reason to change. The only tricky thing is if they've stopped making your particular drivetrain.

But you can get a 12-46 for ten speed, but your shifter and derailleur is probably harder to replace if you want the same one.

 

I've been running the Microshift Advent X 11-48 10 speed cassette for the last year? & I'm really really happy with it. I bought the lighter, alloy carrier version and have paired it with the Shimano M7100 rear derailleur, and their own 10 speed trigger Pro shifter. It feels like a cross between SLX and XT, as far as lever effort, and feel/precision. With a YBN 11 speed chain. It's been flawless, I don't want or need the very small gaps between ratios of 12 speed.
It's also been childs play to set up and maintain, just set and forget.
I'm old and slow so have favoured my overall gearing ratio to slower speed, and run a 26T chainring. Happy to have a bit of a rest from pedaling when the hills get step enough that I spin out at 26:11 But that's just me.

Edit -I also have the Deore 11 speed 11-51 with the Deore rear derailleur, as well as the Sunrace 11-51 11 speed, I've tried both the Shimano and YBN chains on all of them, so I've got a pretty reasonable reference as to what shifts and feels good, or otherwise, in saying that I'm perfectly happy with the Advent X setup. I just can't get my head around plopping a 600 gram cassette on the back wheel of my relatively light hardtail LoL LoL.

 

I still run the X0 11 speed on my XC race bike. All my other bikes are 11 too, but running the garbaruk 11 cassettes now.

 

11 speed is perfectly good for me. So is 12. I have both.

 

11 was pretty damn good for xc racing, but for the larger population, a 42 didnt cut it. I think we see this with the new xtr, “down” to 45 max. For racing, makes good sense. You don’t need more gears tho, just the spread.

 

I was more then happy with a 42 when I had a 27.5 rear.

Once I did a 29er, I.....struggled with a 42.

Thinking of going mullet, which could make me happy with a 42 again?

 

No. Not enough range.

e13 helps but too creaky for me, even with the 1st gen thread-on lockring.

 

I jumped from 9 speed box three / Microshift Advent 9 speed to Shimano 12 speed.

The Shimano was easier to setup, so I don't honestly get the idea that more speeds is more finicky.

 

my gravel bike is 2x10. my mtb is 1x12.

they both work. I do like the crispness of the shifts on my shimano 1x12. that drivetrain has been less fiddly for me than anything else I've had after the initial setup.

I like the tight cog spacing on the 10-45 cassette. It mostly has all the range I need, but there are a few really long grunts I ride where a touch lower would be beneficial so I might get 10-51. Not immediately or anything, so maybe when my current 1x12 needs a new cassette. Or maybe I'll just put 10-51 on a new bike and leave the current one 10-45.

Honestly the range of the 10-45 is fine. I use a 28t chainring so I have a decent climbing gear, but even still I rarely use the 10t cog. And I've never wanted more range. It's just not terribly easy to find chainrings compatible with shimano 12spd in 28t for a raceface crankset, let alone 26t.

 

It's just not terribly easy to find chainrings compatible with shimano 12spd in 28t for a raceface crankset, let alone 26t.

I did this. I can run whatever tooth count I desire. Easily. And for peanuts.

 

XTR 9000 with 1199 cassette is my go-to drivetrain.

Terrain is too flat around here to need more than a 42, and I've never missed a shift with hyperglide so no reason to use hyperglide+ which gets crunchy fast in the dust.

 

XTR 9000 with 1199 cassette is my go-to drivetrain.

Terrain is too flat around here to need more than a 42, and I've never missed a shift with hyperglide so no reason to use hyperglide+ which gets crunchy fast in the dust.

Same setup here with a 28T oval up front.

 

Have you compared the ratios? Does the 11 get you what you want?

 

I prefer the durability of 11 speed, but 11-42 is not enough range for my terrain. Our trails have pretty steep climbs. I have a 46T big cog on the XT cassette on my hardtail, which is enough— but when that goes I’ll likely switch the bike to 12 spd.

 

I upgraded to shimano xtr 9100 using gs derailleur its only limited to 45t but seems to be just what I need With 42 upfront.

 

Plenty of people still race (and ride) with 11-speeds.

 

It's perfectly fine for me.

 

I like 10 speed (Advent X) better than 11 or 12.

 

I'm of the strong opinion that there's no good reason to buy into 12 speed drivetrains unless you already have one. But I like the well-adopted standards all around, ie: HG, 104BCD, etc.

I also don't really buy into the range arguments myself - there are 11-51 cassettes on 11 speed. Gear spacing also isn't that much different with just one more. 🤷

 

Those 51t Deore cassettes chew up freehub bodies. The steel ones. Onyx and DT.

 

I bought a CrMo Freehub body years ago, in anticipation of that. It's still sitting on the shelf. A little bit of anti seize on the threads, grease on the splines, don't be shy with the torque value and it's not too bad. Oh, & re-torque it again after a few miles. That helps.

 

If you already have 11 speed, not worth upgrading to 12. But I do really like how consistently well shimano 12 speed shifts under load. Doesn't seem to wear very fast either.

Can be a tricky setup sometimes, need to make sure derailleur hangers are straight, and cables have good clean bends with high quality cable and housing (SP-41) But once it is setup right, it works really damn well

 

If you already have 11 speed, not worth upgrading to 12. But I do really like how consistently well shimano 12 speed shifts under load. Doesn't seem to wear very fast either.

Can be a tricky setup sometimes, need to make sure derailleur hangers are straight, and cables have good clean bends with high quality cable and housing (SP-41) But once it is setup right, it works really damn well

I e had more issues with my XT 12 speed in 3 years than 20+ years of XT 8, 9, 10, 11 speed group sets combined!

are there better chains that I should like at? I’ve only used, and broken XT chains…someone told me they use a SRAM 12 speed chain…but I have a brand new XT chain waiting till I break this one.

 

I run a Shimano 11 speed SLX/XT mix with 30 x 11-46 on the trail bike and 10-speed 30 x 11-48 Advent-X cassette & shifter with a shimano M8000 derailleur on the big bike. Both work flawlessly, give me all the range I need and components are dirt cheap to replace. Not going to upgrade anytime soon.

 

I have been thinking of swapping one of my bikes back to 11spd as the current GX 12spd cassette has died and the replacement cost is huge.

as for shifting IMHO everything got worse after 11spd, but we wanted the range.

 

10 speed was very, set and forget. Just worked. Not finicky

 

10 speed what? I'd say that in general, I don't agree. There was a short-lived sram 10 speed setup that used the basic tech of their 11spd stuff and preceded it, lived for a little while along side it. That general of SRAM was the start of their 1x stuff where the quality and performance was just tenfold better than before. Shimano eventually "me-too"-ed and came up with a functional (and still far better shifting/performing) 11 speed setup than what existed with 10 speed.

The SRAM and Shimano 10 speed stuff wandered a LOT more and you had to deal with the never-perfect front derailleur. The entire system was compromised for that derailleur (like chains dropping, bouncing off the front cogs, etc.) and the shifting wandered around a LOT more. One of the things that the 1x systems did was shift into gears MUCH more solidly, with a "clunk", than the 10 speed sets before. I think shimano went even too far with this, but I digress. The 1x systems handle mud and everything else far better.

I don't know of a "finicky" 11 speed setup?

 

I have a few bikes in the household with 10, 11, 12spd setups. I still think my 1x10 setup with a ZEE RD, 11-36 cassette, and XT shifter is the best shifting and feeling drivetrain i've tried so far. But the range is definitely on the limiting side for me.
When it comes to 11 and 12spd, I can't tell the difference between an 11-51 11spd cassette and an 11-50 12spd cassette. They feel the same to me. In terms of reliability and durability, I haven't noticed a difference. I don't find that 12spd needs more frequent adjustments than 10spd. They both seem to work perfectly fine for me, unless I hit the rear derailleur or something.

On my "main bike" I have a 12spd 11-50 HG SRAM cassette, SLX derailleur, X01 chain, steel SRAM chainring, X01 shifter.
I like this setup because the steel SRAM chainrings cost like $10-15 and last forever, the cassette is all steel and lasts for a long time, the X01 chain lasts forever as well, and I like the feel and ergonomics of the X01 shifter. I run a Shimano rear derailleur because it's much cheaper than SRAM, and seems to work just fine. The GX cassette definitely shifts faster and smoother tho.
But I could probably find an 11spd setup that I like just as much.

 

https://bike.shimano.com/en-NZ/technologies/details/side-swing-front-derailleur.html

Don't take my word for it, here's Shimano's documentation on it. There's also other little things they don't mention there, from what I can gather there's little anti rattle guides built into the the rails that I'm guessing also help.

 

2x10 Shimano was Sh*t for Enduro racing full stop. PITA dropped the chain every race, and no amount of adjusting would fix it. 1x with a wide-narrow chainring IS the way to go for rough MTB riding.

 

Yet mine disagrees. I've got a little bit of a test loop that I use for chain retention testing purposes, where I can drop the chain on my 1x if I don't use a chain guide over the narrow/wide ring. Yet my 2x10 manages just fine. Even without the clutch activated. Go figure.