experience with big fat XD 10-52 cassette?

[eddief]

I am amazed my 1x Eagle AXS GX rear d can actually shift my current 10-50? Seems just fine and it is a blessing for my old legs and crappy climbing DNA. But in a month the bike and legs are going to Mallorca and I am considering two more teeth. If the RD can now do 10-50 any reason to think 10-52 will not run smoothly?

[prototoast]

Your derailleur probably won't notice the change. Uncertain if your legs will either, but no reason not to try.

[EB]

Only thing to be aware of with that cassette is that SRAM took kind of a cheap route to making it - they just made the aluminum 50 cog 2 teeth larger and left the rest the same. So the 10-50 goes 36-42-50 and the 10-52 goes 36-42-52. 10 teeth is a big jump. I put up with this on my enduro bike because it needs all the low-end grunt it can get for seated pedaling, but the jump is noticeable enough that I went with a 9-50 on my hardtail.

The Shimano 12 speed mountain cassettes have much better climbing gear spreads, but then you have to deal with microspline which means a new freehub driver (and microspline is kinda fiddly tbh).

Transmission solved this with better gear spreads, but that's a whole new system you have to buy into.

[avalonracing]

Originally Posted by EB

The Shimano 12 speed mountain cassettes have much better climbing gear spreads, but then you have to deal with microspline which means a new freehub driver (and microspline is kinda fiddly tbh).

You aren't kidding about the gear spread. When I went from XT 11-Speed to XT-12 speed it was just the lower gear I noticed but how nice the range is. Before, on some climbs, it was too hard a gear then BLAM! too easy of a gear. Now it always seems just right when I shift.

[yinzerniner]

Originally Posted by eddief

I am amazed my 1x Eagle AXS GX rear d can actually shift my current 10-50? Seems just fine and it is a blessing for my old legs and crappy climbing DNA. But in a month the bike and legs are going to Mallorca and I am considering two more teeth. If the RD can now do 10-50 any reason to think 10-52 will not run smoothly?

GX rd was always designed to work with 10-52 cassettes.
https://www.pinkbike.com/news/sram-r...rivetrain.html

Also their earlier xx and x01 were all later retroactively rated for 10-52, as they were in development along with the 10-52 cassette but came to market earlier
https://bikerumor.com/sram-eagle-fli...ctual-weights/

There’s a chance you might need another chain though, depending on how it was previously sized. And as others mentioned that last gear jump is pretty big, makes the dinner plate even more of a bailout gear