[ahhchon]

i'm looking to upgrade my drivetrain. currently i ride a cannondale f600. xt rear and lx front i believe. 2005 model.

i'm looking to upgrade to either th sram x0 or the xtr for the rear and i'm looking to upgrade my cassette and chain.

i xc race so weight is somewhat a factor. i'm just looking for some durable parts.

i would also like some suggestions on brake levers, the f600 came with crappy cannondales, would avid levers be stiffer? how about shifters, it comes with shimano deore which are on the low end. i'm looking to up to sram's top of the line or shimano top of the line.

money isn't really a problem. my work has pro deals so i get pretty much everything 50% off. i'm also looking into a fork, mayb the sid wc's but i hear they only truely have 67mm of travel and i would like to have at least 80..

thanks, i know you guys recieve 100 of these posts a day, but help would be greatly appreciated.

john

 

[evilgenius]

hi,

i would get a set of Sram X9 shifter and rear mech, light, perfect shifting and very affordible. as for chain and cassette, i would get a pg 990 cassette and pc 991 hollow pin cassette.

hope that helps

 

[WeylessXPRider]

i'm looking to upgrade my drivetrain. currently i ride a cannondale f600. xt rear and lx front i believe. 2005 model.

i'm looking to upgrade to either th sram x0 or the xtr for the rear and i'm looking to upgrade my cassette and chain.

i xc race so weight is somewhat a factor. i'm just looking for some durable parts.

i would also like some suggestions on brake levers, the f600 came with crappy cannondales, would avid levers be stiffer? how about shifters, it comes with shimano deore which are on the low end. i'm looking to up to sram's top of the line or shimano top of the line.

money isn't really a problem. my work has pro deals so i get pretty much everything 50% off. i'm also looking into a fork, mayb the sid wc's but i hear they only truely have 67mm of travel and i would like to have at least 80..

thanks, i know you guys recieve 100 of these posts a day, but help would be greatly appreciated.

john

Here's my recommendation:
Your Deore XT Rear Derailleur is good derailleur already, and is lighter than the rest, with the exception of the XTR, but is also more durable, but if you going to up grade you current drive trainy, then the best idea would be to stick with Shimano, because you get the best back for the buck.
For shifters go get some Shimano Deore XT rapid fire shifters, since your undoubtly used to the rapid fire type, you should be able find those no problem.
For brakes, your probably using rim brakes from what I can tell, changing both the brake levers and brakes themselve would help a lot with brake feel, I think you should have the cannodale brake set, which probably isn't too great anyways, best bet would probably be the a Shimano XT or XTR set, both have superior braking power and feel. Not sure about avid though.
For your fork, you should probably go with a Marzocchi Marathon. The RS Sid has 80mm of travel, it can be reduced is all, you can get the new RS Recon with 100 mm of travel as well.

Oh yeah forgot about the Cassette, go with the Shimano Deore XT, It's pretty light not to mention it's more durable than the Deore XTR which uses titanium which can wear quickly depending on conditions.

Hope this helps.

 

[ahhchon]

the f600 has disk braks, avid bb5's.

i allready purchased a cassette. i got the sram pg990's (something like that) their top of the line cassette. if i'm going to drop the money for xt shifters i might as well go all out and get the xtr's.. it's not that much more considering i can get anything 50% off retail.

so far i haven't made any upgrades.

today i ordered a new chain and cassette because mine are a year old. i ordered all new cable and housing (ss cables that are teflon coated) and crankbrothers eggbeater sl pedals

i feel like my next upgrade should be my crank setup, then fork (if i decide to get a fork it has to be the lightest, the sid world cups are probably what i'm going to get. i have the cannondale ultra fatty shock and i don't think it has 80mm of travel like advertised), then shifters and brake levers.

john

 

[WeylessXPRider]

Well if you have to have the lightest, the Sid would be the way to go. If your going light, your BB5s are going to have to be replaced eventually, they are not what you'd call lite, probably by maybe the Shimano XTR models, the 07 models are going to pretty good, and you can get separate brake levers for them or the new Avid Ultimates.

The best crankset to go with, regarding weight would be, either the Shimano XTR or the RaceFace Deus, I wouldn't with anything that uses carbon in there crank arms.

 

[Mr.Bob]

Do you have a specific performance problem you're trying to address? If so, we might be able to point you in the right direction if we knew what it was. If you're just upgrading for the sake of upgrading, and there's nothing wrong with that, then it doesn't much matter. All the high end stuff is pretty darn good. Even the low end stuff is pretty darn good nowadays now that I think about it.

 

[AZ-X]

X.9 and XT are in the same price and wieght range as far as rear derailleurs and there is no durability difference. I have both XT and X.0 and I feel that the SRAM setup shifts more smoothly that the Shimano. I've tried the X.9 derailleur on friend's bike and there is really no difference in perfomance between it and the X.0 derailleur--only weight truly differentiates them in practice. Not sure if 30-40g (medium cage versions) is worth $100-150.00 to you. I hear that, in the fall, the 2007 X.9 might be available and the differences between them and the X.0 line might be even less. Let's just hope the price stays significantly lower...

If you are going SRAM, I would definitely try to ride bikes with the SRAM triggers as well as the grip shifters to do your own comparison. This is way too personal a thing to just take other people's word for it--in my opinion.

Stick with a Shimano front derailleur since weight is an issue unless SRAM comes out with a lighter one. Even an LX is considerably lighter than the SRAM and works just as well if not better.