SRAM X01 Eagle Rear Derailleur [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 released their notorious 1x12 eagle drivetrain years ago and since then, they have taken over the market. The best part is that every tier of eagles components is cross compatible with each other. This allows riders to slowly upgrade to something better over time. That is exactly what our buddy Scott ended up doing. Let's see what he thought:

Scott's Review

Upgraded my 2014 Kona King Kahuna to a full SRAM Eagle GX drivetrain about a year ago. I wanted to go both 1x and figured I may as well go 12-speed too. General disclaimer regarding all SRAM Eagle drivetrains: when they’re dialed in and working well...it’s like warm butter. However, when they’re not...and it’s relatively easy for them to fall out of sync...they’re annoying AF!!

So...on a XC ride one day, I got a twig caught in my GX RD at extremely low speed (and I stopped immediately) and that sucker has never worked properly since. Some part of the cage obvi got a little twisted but not to the naked eye. Drove myself bat$hit fiddling with that cage but could never get it shifting properly again.

Upon reading that the X01 had a sturdier lower cage with forged aluminum, I decided to upgrade to X01. It has worked flawlessly since Day#1..I love it!

I’ve serviced it too since I mounted it and the lower cage definitely seems a bit stronger than that of the GX. I like it so much that I spec’d a bike I’m building (2018 Spot Rollik 607) with an X01 Rear derailleur as well.

For those interested in upgrading to Eagle, I have some thoughts on the subject. If you’re currently riding a anything other than a 1x system, I highly recommend switching to 1x and if you do that…may as well go Eagle 1x12. However, if you’re someone riding a 1x11, you might find Eagle to be a bit less forgiving to maladjustment and all the little things that can cause your drivetrain to run less smoothly. Also, if you’re a relatively fit rider (unlike myself…lol) & don’t hardly ever jump up into that granny gear, then you might be totally fine with running 1x11. And now that Eagle is taking the scene by storm, 1x11 components have become attractively cheaper.

Conclusion

"One other downside of that massive 50t cog is that the lower cage has to be a bit longer in order to manage the chain stretch over the cog. On my 29er XC bike, I don’t see too much of a problem with clearance of the Eagle cage over trail crap, but now that I’ve built up a sweet and gnarly 27.5 enduro/trail bike, I’m just waiting for the day when I whack that long RD cage on a rock and it gets bent just enough to cause it to shift really crappy. If that happens, I have certainly not ruled out the idea of converting down to 1x11 and dropping a size on the front ring to maintain low-end climbing capabilities. I would prioritize low-end climbing over high-end speed in an enduro/trail bike anyway." - Scott