Studying some more...
The cassettes are not x-dome or power dome style. They correspond to Force and Rival in groupset level. They have the four smallest cogs out of one piece of steel and are otherwise like a GX cassette with each cog pinned to the next one. The more expensive one has an aluminum 44t cog. That's not exactly high tech, definitely price per lightness. They are not as light as an x-dome cassette would be. They are 373 and 412 grams, heavier than the GX 11 cassette at 325 grams and way heavier than the XX/XO 11 speed cassettes at 268 grams. Wonder if those new AXS derailleurs would work at 11 speed? Wonder if there is a Red-level dome cassette coming? On the other hand that 10t-11t shift is really a big ratio difference from the 10-12 on the MTB cassettes and then it crams its other cog in the small half too. 32-36-42 and 32-38-44 are both awkward sequences.
Shimano was kind enough to give us a 37t on their previous generation 11 speed cassette, but you probably don't care as much about having a perfect ratio at that end of the cassette. But their XT/XTR 12x10-45 is kind of strange, instead of giving the XC guys a corncob it adds a gear in the bottom half. Why? And their design is still way behind SRAM's dome, they are still doing spiders and using five titanium and three aluminum cogs to get to 357g
11 speed ratios 10, 12,14,16,18, 21,24,28,32, 36, 42 (GX,XX,XO)
12 speed ratios 10,11,13,15,17,19, 21,24,28,32, 38, 44 (XPLR)
12 speed ratios 10, 12,14,16,18, 21,24,28,32, 36, 40, 45 (XTR/XT)
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Genesis 49:16-17
Last edited by Darth Lefty; 08-13-21 at 05:39 PM.