What is SRAM Eagle?
01-24-23, 08:29 AM
#76
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They are both a bit of a dog's dinner if we're honest, but I can easily cope with either.
Anyone running high-end XX1, X01 or XTR, XT is not likely to get confused. It's actually at the lower end where people will stuggle and that's where Shimano actually gets more confusing than SRAM. I certainly struggle to remember the order of Shimano's lower tier groups. Introduction of gravel groupsets has made it even more confusing. Saint is also a bit confusing in the mix and doesn't even sit near the bottom of the hierarchy as implied in the above list.
At least grouping all the SRAM mtb 12-speed as "Eagle" makes it clear what components are 12-speed and cross-compatible. How do you figure that out with Shimano's naming convention, since it doesn't have any reference to the number of speeds? For example, is Deore compatible with XT? I wouldn't know of the top of my head. But I know Eagle NX is compatible with Eagle X01 without having to dig any further.
I agree XPLR eTap AXS is a bit of a mouthful! But no more or less confusing to me than Shimano's gravel vs mtb groupsets. They could just drop the eTap part and often do on their website references.
Anyone running high-end XX1, X01 or XTR, XT is not likely to get confused. It's actually at the lower end where people will stuggle and that's where Shimano actually gets more confusing than SRAM. I certainly struggle to remember the order of Shimano's lower tier groups. Introduction of gravel groupsets has made it even more confusing. Saint is also a bit confusing in the mix and doesn't even sit near the bottom of the hierarchy as implied in the above list.
At least grouping all the SRAM mtb 12-speed as "Eagle" makes it clear what components are 12-speed and cross-compatible. How do you figure that out with Shimano's naming convention, since it doesn't have any reference to the number of speeds? For example, is Deore compatible with XT? I wouldn't know of the top of my head. But I know Eagle NX is compatible with Eagle X01 without having to dig any further.
I agree XPLR eTap AXS is a bit of a mouthful! But no more or less confusing to me than Shimano's gravel vs mtb groupsets. They could just drop the eTap part and often do on their website references.
"Acera, Alivio and Deore" sounds like a law firm. Honestly, I cannot remember for the life of me which is which without looking it up.
As to Shimano road groups, I cannot keep the name "Tiagra" in my head. I just remember one of them starts with the letter "T". Don't know if they were thinking of Viagra when they named it.
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01-24-23, 09:40 AM
#77
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"Acera, Alivio and Deore" sounds like a law firm. Honestly, I cannot remember for the life of me which is which without looking it up.
As to Shimano road groups, I cannot keep the name "Tiagra" in my head. I just remember one of them starts with the letter "T". Don't know if they were thinking of Viagra when they named it.
As to Shimano road groups, I cannot keep the name "Tiagra" in my head. I just remember one of them starts with the letter "T". Don't know if they were thinking of Viagra when they named it.
I think Tiagra is Shimano most underrated, most capped-upon road groupset, despite being the most practical, versatile, and most real-world oriented for the thinking cyclist: It's marketed as a 10-speed groupset even though it's actually designed as an 11-speed and works perfectly fine as such (can't undermine those sweet, sweet 105 sales, now, can we?); the rear derailleur is made entirely of metal parts with none of that craptastic composite/carbon craptasy;the crank arms are forged rather than being glued together; and you can (still) get it in drop-bar brifter or flat-bar brake lever and shifter form, with cable rim or hydraulic disk brakes - whatever suits your fancy.
With that being said, I recently acquired a NOS Tiagra 4600 crankset to be able to run an existing pair of 110bcd chainrings with a symmetrical five-arm spider and I must say, as soon as I took it out of the oversized box, I realized that I had overpaid for what I actually got: I was not impressed with the build quality of this thing; the chainring landings in the spider weren't even cut straight and true; it was full of rough edges; getting it to fit through the Ultegra BB60 bottom bracket was a literal PITA; and it was heavy AF to boot! The no-brand Chinese knockoff Hollowtech II cranksets that I bought off of Aliexpress were far nicer and precision made at a fraction of the price!
Last edited by sjanzeir; 01-24-23 at 10:32 AM.
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01-24-23, 09:55 AM
#78
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They are both a bit of a dog's dinner if we're honest, but I can easily cope with either.
Anyone running high-end XX1, X01 or XTR, XT is not likely to get confused. It's actually at the lower end where people will stuggle and that's where Shimano actually gets more confusing than SRAM. I certainly struggle to remember the order of Shimano's lower tier groups. Introduction of gravel groupsets has made it even more confusing.
Anyone running high-end XX1, X01 or XTR, XT is not likely to get confused. It's actually at the lower end where people will stuggle and that's where Shimano actually gets more confusing than SRAM. I certainly struggle to remember the order of Shimano's lower tier groups. Introduction of gravel groupsets has made it even more confusing.
On the topic of gravel, SRAM gets bonus points for just repurposing their road groupsets and adding XPLR to the name, rather than creating a whole new line. GRX is where Shimano really messed up with their naming conventions. People just generally refer to GRX as a whole, without differentiating between GRX 400, 600, 800 and 800 Di2. I'm sure 900 is coming. Also no idea why they didn't match the road numbering on this (9000 = Dura Ace, 8000 = Ultegra, 7000 = 105, etc). They got GRX 800 right, which basically matches Ultegra 8000, but they went with GRX600 as a match to 105, which is 7000? I don't get it.
Cool cat.
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01-24-23, 10:24 AM
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Back on topic (sort of): I have had SRAM drivetrains exclusively since 2010: mtb and road; 2x and 1x. I have never had a derailleur break on either, nor a chain drop on a 1x. And I can be clumsy, and hit things.
