If you’re taking your ‘cross bike on more adventuresome rides than the stock 11-32 cassette allows, then the new 11-36 option should be just the ticket…and it opens the doors to more and more affordable 1×11 mountain bike builds, too!
Offering a 13% lower gear than the 32-tooth cog of the other WiFLi option, this cassette does require the use of a medium cage X-Horizon rear derailleur since none of their standard road rear derailleurs are designed to move around the larger 36-tooth cog. On the smaller end, the 11-tooth still provides the speed needed to crush the flats and descents. It’ll fit any 11-speed road freehub body, so all current road wheels should work with it.
And, since some modern mountain bike freehub bodies are 11-speed compatible (Rolf Prima, American Classic, etc.), this should fit there, too. That doesn’t mean you’ll get the range of the XX1/X01’s 42-tooth cogs, but you’ll get the smoother transition between gears that 11-speeds offer. And, in our opinion, it sets the stage for a non-XD style 11-speed mountain bike cassette for an X9 level group in the future…no reason why they couldn’t build it out to a 40 or 42 tooth max and have it fit a standard 10/11 speed compatible freehub body. Others have done it.
UPDATED: Additional compatibility notes at bottom.
Tooth counts, specs and weights below…
After seeing the comments, we reached out to SRAM to confirm compatibility with XX1/X01/X1 groups, mainly to see if cog spacing was the same from this new cassette to SRAM’s XD-style 11-speed cassettes. Here’s the response:
“Yes, the cog spacing is the same relative to the XX1 cassette. While we think the best application for this cassette is expanding the possibilities of CX1, if you have the right wheels and know yourself and your favorite terrain well, you could certainly plug it in to your XX1 group. You’ll probably need to be extremely mindful of your B gap, because if the pulley gets too far away from the larger cogs, your shift quality could suffer.”
That’s good news as it means more options for fine tuning your gravel, cyclocross or mountain bike to suit your terrain and riding style!