XX cassette technology now available in 9-speed
One of the most interesting components of SRAM's incredibly light XX groupset was the cassette, which employed a unique one-piece construction approach borrowed from SRAM's Red road group. Now this X-Dome technology will be available in 9-speed guise.
Seven of the the cogs are CNC-machined together out of a single block of billet steel on the XG999 cassette. Weight claimed for this 11-32 cassette is just 175g.
Don't expect it to be cheap however, with a price of $300 (UK price TBC).
www.sram.com
Nine hours machining according to SRAM! If it's nine hours on a 5-axis miller I'm surpised it's only $300.
It's strange that there's only one gear splined to the freehub body.
My XX cassette isn't doing any damage to the freehub body though, I guess being twice as wide means the forces on the freehub body are much less.
Being all one piece should also make it stiffer, giving smoother shifts. Again the XX one is certainly very good, but I never had a problem with XTR.
