First Look / First Ride: OneUp Components Shark 10-50T System

Looking for the ultimate in range with your 1x setup? OneUp Components announces the release of their Shark 10-50T modular upgrades for the current Shimano 11-speed cassettes. You read that right...a 10-50T 11-speed cassette. OneUp pulls this massive 500% range off by offering three upgraded bits for both the cassette and rear derailleur; the Shark 50T Sprocket, an offset pulley derailleur cage kit to accommodate the 50T sprocket, and a 10T cluster. Still utilizing the standard freehub body, the new Shark components make this an easy swap for users still using non-XD Driver setups. We got the chance to check out the new goods from OneUp first hand, and even got to take a little spin on the 11-50T setup. Check out the press release from OneUp below, as well as our initial impressions.

From OneUp Components:

OneUp Components Shark 10-50T: The widest range 11-speed 1X system ever.

A climb-crushing, descent-hammering 500% of range.  

OneUp Shark is a set of modular upgrades for Shimano 11-speed mountain cassettes. Extend the range of your stock Shimano 11-42T cassette by almost a third, by adding a 50T sprocket and cage kit, a 10T cluster or both. Shark allows you to build the perfect cassette for the trails that you ride.

Shark 50T Sprocket and Cage Kit

 Increase your chainring size by 4 teeth, and still gain range on both ends of your cassette. This means a higher top speed, a better average chainline (you now spend more time in the middle of your cassette) and legs for days on your next backcountry epic. The converted 11-50T cassette is the widest range cassette available that uses a standard freehub body.

Shark 50T Sprocket Tech Specs: 

Cassette Progression: 11,13,15,18,21,24,28,32,37,42,50
 Sprocket Material: 7075-T6 Aluminum (50T), Nickel plated hardened steel (18T).
Maintains the 42T as the smallest aluminum sprocket, preventing premature drivetrain wear. No major drivetrain manufacturer goes smaller than a 40T cassette sprocket in aluminum.
Compatibility: XT M8000 11-42T cassettes (For Shimano 11-40 use the OneUp 45T sprocket)
 Freehub requirement: Standard freehub
 Cassette range improvement: 19%
 Colours: Grey or Green

Shark Cage Tech Specs

Pulley Offset: 50% more than stock 
Compatibility: Shimano Shadow+ 11spd rear derailleurs 
Colours: Grey or Grey/Green

Shark 50T Sprocket and Cage Kit MSRP: $125 USD

Looking for even more top end? Add the Shark 10-12T Cluster and OneUp MiniDriver, to gain another 10% range on any 11-speed Shimano mountain cassette.

  OneUp has collaborated with Hope Technology to develop a non-proprietary, freehub body standard that accepts a 10T sprocket. This shortened version of a standard freehub is available for Hope, Stan's and DT hubs with more coming soon. The MiniDriver open standard isn't shrouded in patents, making the production of inexpensive 10T equipped cassettes a future possibility.

10T Cluster Tech Specs

 Kit contains: 10-12 cluster, 14T and 15T  
11-40 Shimano converted to 10-40 gearing: 10-12-14-17-19-21-24-27-31-35-40
11-42 Shimano converted to 10-42 gearing: 10-12-14-17-19-21-24-28-32-37-42
11-45 OneUp'd Shimano converted to 10-45 gearing:10-12-15-18-21-24-27-31-25-40-45 
11-50 OneUp'd Shimano converted to 10-50 gearing: 10-12-15-18-21-24-28-32-37-42-50
Compatibility: Shimano 11-spd 11-40 and 11-42 cassettes and OneUp'd Shimano 11-45 and 11-50 cassettes
 Freehub requirement: OneUp MiniDriver (or compatible) 
Cassette range improvement: 10% 
Colour: Nickel Plated cluster with Green Lockring 
MSRP - $45

The 500% range of a Shark 10-50T cassette matches a typical 2x11 drivetrain, which should be enough to silence any remaining 2X hold outs.

MiniDriver Tech Specs

Length: 4.5mm shorter than a standard freehub 
Lockring Thread: M29
 OneUp DT star ratchet compatible MiniDriver
MSRP - $40

  Ride faster, higher and longer with a wider range cassette.

Vital's Initial Impressions

Setting up the OneUp Shark system was pretty straight-forward. As we mentioned earlier, we got to check out the 11-50T configuration of the line, as the 10T cluster wasn't available just yet. Since the system uses the standard driver, installing the cassette was as you'd expect. A standard cassette tool and chain whip to install and remove the cassette is all you need. As for chain length, since we're adding quite a bit of teeth over our previous 32T chainring and 10-42t cassette, we were careful to closely follow OneUp's recommendation of adding 4-links to the chain when measuring it. Setting up the derailleur is also no different than the norm. After setting up the shifting, which again is fairly standard practice, it was time to see how our extended range fared on the trails.

Here are the recommended derailleur settings and chain length from OneUp:

Chain line - Recommend 48mm +/- 1mm (51mm +/- 1mm for Boost).
B-tension – Start at 5 full turns back from bottomed out. Fine tune from there.
Chain length – Setting chain length uses the standard big-to-big plus 4 links method.

OneUp's directions for installing the Shark Cage.

Once on the trail we found ourselves spending the majority of our time out of the extremes on the cassette. We bumped our front ring up to a 34T based on OneUp's recommendation and we're glad we did. Even on a fairly steep climb, we only occasionally used the 50T rear cog. Mostly using it as a bail-out gear on the steepest of climbs or as we neared the end of a long ride and our legs were flogged. While we were in the 50T, we did experience some drivetrain noise, but OneUp let us know this was remedied with their production Shark cage (ours was pre-production). That said, we can't comment further on drivetrain noise with the new Shark components as we experienced no atypical sounds coming from any other gear.

Even though we didn't get a chance to ride OneUp's 10T cog, it felt like our high gear was almost the same as it was on our 32T chainring 10-42T cassette. We found ourselves reserving the 11T rear cog for wide-open fireroad-type descents. It did take a bit of adjusting to the larger jump in teeth between shifts. For reference, a SRAM 10-42 tooth cassette's average jump is 3.1 teeth. For the OneUp'd Shark 10-50 tooth Shimano cassette, the average jump goes to 4.1 teeth. While it was initially difficult to find our ideal gear, we eventually started appreciating what we could accomplish in a single shift instead of two or even three shifts, previously.

Shifting performance, so far, seems on par with the performance of the stock configuration of the Shimano XT M8000 we rode. Only time will tell if the shifting ramps on the 50T alloy cog hold up and can keep helping the chain make the massive 8-tooth jump.

For more information, visit oneupcomponents.com