The Deore XT groupset from the Japanese component brand Shimano has been around since the very early days of mountain biking. First launched in 1983, before most of us here in the UK had even ridden a mountainbike, this level of equipment soon set a standard for others to follow.
It became a benchmark back then and in 2017 it still is and takes a place in the 2017 Dirt 100.
SRAM’s dominance in single ring transmissions took the focus from Shimano for a few years. Although here at Dirt we had been running 1×10 (and 1×9 before that…) the arrival of SRAM’s 1×11 transmissions had us quickly converted to their way of think. For a year or two they had the upper hand. Not to be out done, and with plenty of thorough development, Shimano moved into the world of 1×11 transmissions.
