For our second beginners guide we thought we would look at the beating heart of the bike - the groupset.  While the frame is crucial to a bike gears, brakes and moving parts are fundamental to how the bike will perform. For this article we will focus on gearing and braking and leave wheels for another day.  There are two major brands found on most bikes in the mountain bike world Shimano and SRAM although numerous others are pick’n'mixed by many bike manufacturers to produce the finished bike.

Founded in 1921, Shimano has a huge pedigree when it comes to bike components which makes up 75% of its business with fishing equipment second.  Shimano holds many patents and has many innovative designs.  They still have the best shifting thanks to ‘hyperglide’, the racks and pins that help the chain to move up and down.  It is the smoothest system available.  The groupsets are marked out by a series of letters.  Moving from the cheapest to most expensive the order is Deore, SLX, XT, XTR (there are cheaper groupsets but this is where things start to get serious).  LX used to slot in where SLX is but for 2008 this groupset has been revamped as a touring groupset so if you are looking at an older bike this is where it fits in.

2008 was a great year for the Japanese company who not only finished redesigning its solid performer XT but also brought out SLX.  This groupset in particular has set the biking world on fire as it is largely a slightly simpler version of XT and XTR with many of the great features of these benchmark groups but at a great price point.  In 2009 this has allowed many bike companies to produce some of their high end bikes with SLX at a fantastic price.  For example Scott’s cross country full suspension bike the Spark is available at GB£1999 with a carbon front triangle and an SLX groupset whereas previously this bike was above the vast majority of mountain bikers wallets.

While it undoubtedly sets the standard XTR, we feel, is a racers only groupset.  It is not as durable as XT which features almost all of the features found at this top group and there isn’t much in the weight.  New shifters feature multiway release (you can change down the gears using either your finger or thumb) in the top three groups and brakes on XT and XTR feature both pad adjustment and bite adjustment too.  These allow you to customise how and where your brakes bite and all three groups allow you to set the lever position to your hand size.  Our personal favourite is the solid performer - XT, we are big big fans.

When it comes to downhill, 2008 saw the reinvention of Saint.  Offering buckets of power in the brake department and quality across the range it is the group of choice if going downhill fast is your thing.  XT and SLX also introduced a through axle design for its hubs which is both stronger and allows for better tracking.  They both also do an all mountain crankset further adding to their versatility.  Hone is the cheapest gravity offering offering durability and adjustability but not quite the low weight of Saint.

Although not quite the new kid on the block, the other major manufacturer is US based SRAM which is steadily gaining ground on its Japanese competitor.  This company started out with Grip shift, a twist grip shifter company and has grown into a huge international company with a broad range of components from suspension forks to cranks.  Innovation is one of the key aspects of SRAM who have developed a range of components around their X range - 3.0, X4, X5, X7, X9 and X0.  The most common components when you start to get serious about mountain bikes are X7, X9 and X0.

Unlike Shimano though the company does not produce its groupset under one banner (STOP PRESS yet! Its coming in 2010).  It has expanded by  buying up smaller companies with a history in certain areas allowing it to grow at a very fast rate.  They now own suspension fork giants Rockshox, crank manufacturers Truvativ and brake manufacturers Avid.  They got their start with mechs and thumb shifters through the aquisition of Sachs, a German groupset manufacturer.  The flag ship mech and shifter set is X0 and it is very good but with a hefty pricetag, one that we feel is a bit over the top.  X9 is a great performer on par with XT but SLX has blown X7 out of the water.  Avid brakes have a history of awesome performance and are one company offering an alternative to Shimano (more below). In particular in 2008 a number of brake sets in their lineup got revamped and apparently are excellent.  Sram recently announced a huge cash injection from a venture capitol company so expect a lot from them over the next few years.  One to watch we think…

One of the best things we saw at trade shows this year was the Truvativ Hammerschmidt crankset which features a planetary gearset (see here for an explanation).  This is especially useful in the full suspension market as the chain doesn’t move so much (more about this in the future) as there is only one front chain ring.

When they are speccing new bikes many companies mix and match components.  It is very common to see a bike fitted with Shimano componants but with a Hayes or Magura brake set.  Similarly SRAM components fitted to a bike with some Shimano componants is not unusual either.  One area that we take exception to is the upgrading of certain components.  Lots of mid to high end bikes come fitted with a rear derailler that is one step above the rest of the components for example an X0 rear mech with an X-9 group.  In most cases this is fine if a little needless but one area we have a problem is with X0 rear mechs.  A Sram X0 rear mech is about 3 times the price of an X-9 one and we would like to see more attention paid to wheels or other components which could have more of an impact on how the bike performs.  This is worth bearing in mind when you are looking at a new bike.

Of course lots of other companies produce parts for your bike.  Magura are a German company which produce some of the best brakes available from their range topping Marta SLs to their awesome Louise Carbons.  We cannot recommend these enough and they often appear on high end production bikes.  Hayes are another company who produce brakesets and again are often specced on production bikes, particularly on Giant bikes.  Formula (common on Lapierre’s) have been crating a stir in the marketplace with their new R1 cross country brake and their The One downhill brake.  Raceface produce cranks, headsets and other finishing kits which have quality written all over them as does FSA, a company that, like SRAM is rapidly expanding its lineup.  Cranksets from FSA have amazing finishes and the company are rumoured to be expanding the lineup significantly over the coming years to include other transmission components.  This is only the tip of the iceberg though as there are plenty of other companies producing parts such as Ritchey, Hope and Bontrager which may end up on a production off the peg mountain bike.  We will be taking a look at finishing kit in a future post.

Next up is Suspension forks, another hot topic of debate.  We will debunk some of the myths. Coming soon….