e*thirteen TRS+ 12-Speed Cassette and Conversion Kit Review (Saving Change With a Wider Range) [Video]

With SRAM Eagle being offered at almost every price point, you may be asking yourself, “Why would I want or need to go with e*thirteen’s new TRS+ 12-Speed Cassette and Upgrade Kit?” Well, that is a great question and the internet has been going wild ever since its release back in June. There are many reasons a rider would benefit from the new e*thirteen 12-Speed kit.

E*thirteen incorporated a lot of advantages with the TRS+ 12-Speed Cassette, such as a wider gear range with smaller spacing between the large cogs to overall weight saving on the cassette itself in order to save weight on other components. The advantages are as clear as day but do you know exactly what it has to offer?

SRAM absolutely took over the market with the release of Eagle. Now with four different models running from $375 for an entire bundle, including cranks, all the way to $1400+, they offer something for just about every price point. The introduction of such a ground breaking product only meant that other companies would soon start producing replacement parts and conversion kits. E*thirteen has just released the TRS+ 12-Speed Conversion Kit and it is here to challenge everything an Eagle Cassette and drivetrain has to offer.

This kit includes a 12-speed cassette, 12-speed chain, upgraded parts for your 11-speed SRAM derailleur and shifter as well as the tools needed for the conversion.

Index

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Advantages

Let’s dig a little into the TRS+ 12-Speed Cassette. It is designed to work perfectly with any existing SRAM 12-Speed Eagle Drivetrain. It is not restricted solely to the conversion kit provided by e*thirteen. Now the question is, what makes this different from SRAM’s cassettes?

For starters, the cassette features a 511% gear range squeezed into a 9-46t cog selection. That is 11% more than SRAM’s 10-50t cassettes which comes out to only 500%. This is similar to the range of a 2x drivetrain in the ease and convenience of a 1x.

Offering a 9t small cog enables the user to ride with a small chainring up front to increase clearance over rocks, roots or whatever objects you might be climbing over. With a smaller chainring, you’ll also be able to shed a few grams. With frame geometry moving towards lower and lower bottom bracket heights, this will help prevent bashing and extend the life of your chainring and chain. The TRS+ Cassette has smaller transitions between the larger cogs and bigger transitions towards the middle. This means when you are really struggling on those climbs, you don’t have to wait for an entire crank rotation for it to shift. In contrast, SRAM’s Eagle Cassette will have bigger jumps towards the larger cogs and closer transitions towards the middle.

Weight

The TRS+ Cassette proves to be the lightest option on the market as of now, weighing in at 336g as opposed to SRAM’s cassettes (listed below).

NX Eagle: 615g

GX Eagle: 450g

X01 Eagle: 353g

XX1 Eagle: 360g

And the SunRace 12-speed cassette which weighs in at 569g.

As stated earlier, running a smaller chainring up front will also lead to weight reduction with the additional weight loss from a smaller chain length. Starting to see the advantages?

Value

In the market for 12-speed cassettes, the TRS+ is the most cost-efficient when talking about the higher-end side of the competition. You can purchase the entire kit now for $299.99 as opposed to SRAM’s X01 12-Speed Cassette which runs for about $385 alone. When looking at SRAM's 12-speed bundles, the prices range from $375-$1400+.

Getting the cassette alone is quite a benefit when looking at what else is on the market. For a smaller price, you can upgrade from your existing SRAM 11-speed drivetrain straight to a 12-speed option without having to worry about extra parts that you have to either throw away or try to sell to someone on Pinkbike or that weird kid down the street.

Compatibility

Compatibility is a question on everyone’s mind and as we have already gone over, the TRS+ Cassette works perfectly fine on SRAM’s Eagle drivetrains. It will work with literally any level of Eagle. If you want to run NX, GX, X01, and XX1 it will all work with the TRS+ Cassette. But what about that new XTR 12-Speed from Shimano? Early reports say that it does work, but it is still too early to say for sure. Hopefully, someone will get a test dialed in soon to answer that question. For now, all we can do is speculate. The conversion kit, however, will only work with existing SRAM 11-speed shifters.

Chain

Moving onto the chain. This should work with just about any chainring. For optimal performance, we recommend using a new e*thirteen branded chainring, however a Wolf Tooth or Race Face chainring will hold up just fine. It is safe to assume that it will work on just about any chainring a standard Eagle or 11-speed chain would be compatible with.

Through testing, the TRS+ cassette does work perfectly with any level of SRAM Eagle Chain. If you want a more value-driven chain, then NX will work. Do you want a gold chain? Then XX1 will work. Simple as that!

Installation

The cassette features the same mount as their 11-speed cassettes. Since the cassette is made of two pieces, the large cogs mount to an XD driver body using a pinch bolt. This is super easy to put on your freehub. From there you must attach the smaller cogs. Simply using a chain whip or Park Tool’s new CP-1 Cassette Pliers, you turn the smaller cogs clockwise to tighten it on. The simple function of the freehub will stop the larger cogs from rotating. Align the locking marker and thread in your pin-screw to help keep everything together. It really isn’t a difficult installation. It should only take you about 10-20 minutes depending on how mechanically inclined you are.

Now the installation of the conversion kit is really what got people on their toes about the whole product. To be honest, the installation is not hard and the guys over at e*thirteen have a few videos guiding you step by step through the process.

GX/X1/X01 Shifter Modification

XX1 Shifter Modification

SRAM Derailleur Modification

We followed their videos step by step and didn’t run into any issues during any part of the process. We highly recommend watching all these videos thoroughly! You might be the best garage mechanic on the block but that doesn't mean you know everything.

Ride Impressions: (By Liam Woods)

At first, we installed the 12-speed e*thirteen cassette on our NX Eagle drivetrain. Moving from the stock SRAM NX Eagle Cassette to the new e*thirteen 12-speed, not only was there a massive weight saving, but also a really nice performance boost as well. The e*thirteen cassette was immediately noticeable when shifting as shifts were more precise and clean all the way through the cassette.

Even though I made the switch from a 10-50t cassette to a 9-46t, I didn’t initially swap out chainrings. I was running a 34t Wolf Tooth while on Eagle, so that’s what I started riding with. While the 34t/46t combo is pretty good for most of my riding and climbing, I was gearing up for the Downieville Classic and needed an easier climbing gear. This means I went down to a 32t, something I have not ridden since my 1x10 days. But with the 7-mile 3500ft climb, I really didn't care about a chainring size for ego and just wanted my legs to survive. Now having the 32t up front and the 46t for a climbing gear, I was able to hold my cadence a bit better on the really steep stuff. And with the smaller 9t, I was able to get all my high-end speed that I needed.

While the performance of the SRAM NX is really great, there is a bit of a drop in performance from some of the higher end stuff, such as the X01 Eagle group. When putting the e*thirteen 12-speed cassette on my NX Eagle, I thought it greatly improved the performance, about matching it equal to X01. X01 Eagle may be the standard, but now I have the same performance, for not much more weight and I saved a ton of money doing this. Sounds like a win-win, eh?

When climbing and shifting around in the low gears, without seeing a breakdown of individual cog sizes, I could tell the gaps were closer between low gears. I don't think anyone will complain about having smoother transitions between gears when climbing some steep trails, especially when you are climbing for over an hour. This really came in handy when climbing up to Packer Saddle during the Downieville Classic. Not only does the Downieville Classic have a grueling climb, but the rest of the race is physical and hard on equipment. The e*thirteen cassette and chain held up great for over a week of pre-riding and race days.

Once we returned home, we installed the entire conversion kit on our only bike with an 11-speed on it and wanted to see the performance after the conversion kit was installed. To my surprise, the shifter actually felt like it had cleaner, sharper shifts. The rest of the kit, cassette, and chain worked great as well. The performance was very similar to running it on the 12-speed Eagle setup. While having more range than Eagle, and better ground clearance using 11-speed rear derailleur, I would have to make up a reason to not upgrade from an existing 11-speed group.

Concluding thoughts:

After putting a few hundred miles on the e*thirteen cassette, both on Eagle 12-speed and on an 11-speed conversion, I can say it is a darn impressive cassette. Once paired with the proper chainring, you really do not notice any difference in range from Eagle. I would also say overall the shifting was the same or at the time even more accurate since the gaps are closer together. I think this cassette will be living on my bike from now on! Convert your current 11-speed to a greater range with an added gear, or get a tighter shifting cassette, and all the while shaving some weight off your current 12-speed setup. Sounds like a win-win situation!