XTR 1x11 Available for Pre-Order

[cmh]

If a nice close-up helps with the discussion...



If not, at least it looks good.

[cmh]

Interesting aside. I used to run a 1x6 drivetrain with 6 cogs of a 9 speed cassette installed on a Hope singlespeed hub. Gave zero dish for the rear wheel, which was pretty cool. Although I don't run that drivetrain anymore, I still have the wheel, and I tested it out. With the XTR 11 speed cassette, I can get 8 cogs on the singlespeed hub. The only problem is that in order to use a lockring I would have to modify _something_, but I thought that was interesting. When I started MTB'ing it was 7 speed cassettes - and I could now run an 8 speed cassette with zero dish in the rear.

Only problem is I don't think they offer a 142x12 conversion for my older hub.

[Carbon_Dude]

Definitely either a glass filled or some other fiber filled resin, could be strands of carbon fiber and most likely a nylon polymer.  EMS Grivory has a version of resin with carbon fiber strands designed for injection molding.  Again, this is not lightweight material so most likely that's one of the reasons the XTR cassette is not lighter than the XX1 cassette.

[cmh]

Definitely either a glass filled or some other fiber filled resin, could be strands of carbon fiber and most likely a nylon polymer.  EMS Grivory has a version of resin with carbon fiber strands designed for injection molding.  Again, this is not lightweight material so most likely that's one of the reasons the XTR cassette is not lighter than the XX1 cassette.

It'll still be lighter than an aluminum spider of comparable volume, though.

As for the SRAM being lighter, I think that's because it's mostly hollow with all the material removed and only the biggest cog actually attaching to the freehub body. The XTR uses the same freehub as the 8/9/10 speed cassettes, and has individual spiders for each pair of the biggest 8 gears. No matter how light those spiders might be, they're not as light as air.