What type of drive train upgrade can I do on a 2015 Specialized Crosstrail?

[aerojack7654]

Hello everyone, I'm an older lifelong cyclist that recently had my beloved old yeti mountain bike stolen, and to try and fill that void, I picked up a 2015 Specialized Crosstrail (I'm riding more paved and gravel trails these days, my full-on mountain bike days are over!). The bike was in very good physical condition, apparently very lightly used. I was unable to ride before purchase, but it looked good and the price was right, and as an engineer that's handled most of my own bike mechanical work over many years of riding, I jumped on it anyway.
For the most part the issues were minor and easily addressed, but as I started taking the bike on some of the steeper trails in my area, more and more problems with the drive train began. It's ostensibly a 3X9 arrangement, which in my experience is a negative, since getting the set up so that the entire rear gear set can be accessed by the 3 front gears is touchy and in my experience I usually ended up chasing my tail with adjustments, especially as the mechanism aged. I eventually had this problem on my yeti that started with a 2X8, or something like that. At the time, I decided to add an early SRAM 1X11, which I installed myself, and it made the bike much more rideable, albeit in less hilly terrain.
Sorry for the long windup, but I'm considering replacing the 3X9 with a new SRAM 1X14 drivetrain, but I'm worried that the 14-gear stack is going to end up too big to fit where the Shimano 8 gear rear stack was. It appears that the latest SRAM gear stack has thinner gears than the older Shimano, but I'm wondering what other folks experience has been. I've been trolling YouTube to try and get some info in this regard, but so far, no success.
Thanks in advance for any helpful information!
Jack

 

[Dogtrousers]

Can't help with your specific question I'm afraid, but welcome to the forum.

 

[TheDoctor]

Do SRAM even do 14 speed? I thought they topped out at 13?

 

[chriswoody]

Do SRAM even do 14 speed? I thought they topped out at 13?

They do top out at 13 and that's the xplr groupset, which is for drop bar bikes. For flat bar bikes like the OP's Specialized Cross Trail, SRAM's 1x drivetrains top out at 12 speed.

The problem is not so much the width of the cassette, but the freehub on which they sit. So a Specialized Crosstrail will have a Shimano HG freehub and the largest modern SRAM cassette that fits on that, is an NX Eagle 12 speed cassette, provided that it is a 35mm HG freehub. Note that GX Eagle and above cassettes all use SRAM's XD driver, freehub body and so won't fit your wheel. Shimano's own 12 speed mountain cassettes use the Micro Spline freehub, rather than the HG freehub you have.

https://www.wheelworks.co.nz/you-need-an-hg-35mm-freehub-body/?srsltid=AfmBOoo83agDjZCuDr-
puE6QsKpfFd0SilMuuUOrikajXgYi6SFGcyNH

https://www.bike-components.de/blog...body-function-compatibilities-and-conversion/

Now the next problem here is that changing to a 1x drivetrain will cost a bucket load of money. If you do decide for example to go the SRAM route, you will need a cassette (Whilst NX Eagle is the cheapest 12 speed cassette SRAM do, it's still not cheap) NX Eagle Derailleur, NX Eagle chain, a new crankset and well as new bottom bracket. Then you will also need new a new shifter. Then there are still no guarantees that all of this will work nicely with your frame or wheels or that there is even space between your dropouts to fit this in. Then there is the issue of chainline and whether or not you could achieve the correct chainline with your frame, I genuinely don't know.

Ultimately is it really worth it on a bike like this? or are you better off working on what you have. A triple chainset with 8 speeds at the back will have a comparable or better range that the 1x set up.