FREE U.S. SHIPPING ON EVERYTHING! HELP / FAQ'S

SRAM XX1 Eagle AXS Cassette [Rider Review]

Our "Rider Review" article series features the honest reviews from verified purchasers of Worldwide Cyclery. They contain the photos, thoughts, feedback & overall review you are looking for.

SRAM's Eagle cassettes are arguably some of the nicest cassettes in the game, and you can even get them in multiple colorways including oil slick! Our friend, Randy has been running the XX1 AXS Cassette. Check it out!

Overview

Okay, so after 3-5 rides of my new setup, I think it's about time to make a review of my rainbow 10-52 cassette that I put on my gravel bike, 2022 Specialized S-Works Crux. I paired this cassette with Sram Red 40T crankset with a Quarq power meter. After putting the cassette on the wheel, this cassette looks MASSIVE on a gravel bike but I love the way it looks with the rainbow color paired with gold XX1 chain and AXS XX1 rear derailleur. I put the first ride to the test by climbing my local gravel trail that has up to a 17% gradient. With the 520% range, I can say that I am more confident climbing now compares to my old set up which is a 46/33 crankset and 10-36 rear cassette. The first ride was awesome with this cassette. It was around 22 miles with 2800 feet of elevation.
After the second ride, I was having a problem shifting. Sometimes when I shift, it does not go to gear. I have to shift twice just to get the chain onto the cassette, this happens either going up or down the cassette. For the third ride, I decided to ride my bike all the way to my local bike shop which is a Specialized dealership. They did install this new groupset on my gravel bike. After fiddling and adjustments, they told me that everything shift better and its good to go so I went back home.

On the fourth ride, I went to another gravel trail and I was having issues again. It wouldn’t shift sometimes. Good thing that it never happened when climbing up, it only happens from the smaller cog to the next cog or vice versa.
In the fifth ride, when shifting from 50T to 52T, the chain would get stuck between the 50T and 52T so I had to bring it back to my local bike shop again.

After checking the bike, they said that my derailleur hanger is bent that’s why I was having problems when shifting, so they decided to put a new hanger. After changing the hanger derailleur and after doing adjustments on the derailleur, the mechanic was still having issues when shifting, sometimes it does not shift, the same issue I was having.

Their head mechanic says that try and ride it the way it is and maybe it’ll get better and when it does bring it back and replace the rear derailleur. Changing the rear derailleur is not even an option for me right now, that’s another $700+!

I don’t know, now I’m thinking that, should’ve gone with the AXS XPLR 10-44 instead of this mullet build. It's been a headache for me since day one.

I am not even sure what’s causing the problem, the cassette or the rear derailleur. Specialized mechanics can not even figure out what’s wrong with it. I will try and have another bike shop take a look at it.