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362
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4/11/2010
Location
Moscow, ID
US
Edited Date/Time
10/21/2021 1:35pm
So, since I bought my new Stumpy Evo I decided to give the shimano SLX group a try (mainly out of curiosity more than anything) because I had up until that point been running Sram GX with out many issues but wanted to see how the other "S" drivetrain compared. Now after owning the bike for longer than 6 months, I have destroyed 2 Shimano SLX rear deraileurs and I am starting to get frustrated with their durability. The question
Should I stay with Shimano and just go to the XTR level for the rear mech, which I would assume would perform better and maybe last longer OR just get rid of it all and go with a FULL Sram GX setup instead? (or just chalk it up to bad luck?)
Should I stay with Shimano and just go to the XTR level for the rear mech, which I would assume would perform better and maybe last longer OR just get rid of it all and go with a FULL Sram GX setup instead? (or just chalk it up to bad luck?)
Poll
How are you killing the mechs?
So after that I got a brand new SLX again and destroyed this one was up at bellingham, I have no idea what happened. I noticed my shifting was crap and then looked down and saw that the outter metal part of the cage was bent outwards. I tried to bend it back so it looks normal but it won't shift well anymore again now.
Sounds like just bad luck/user error but for some reason I have never had these issues with sram stuff...
Shimano 12 Speed XTR/XT/SLX/Deore Derailleur BENT and Twisted??? XTR M9100
To an extent they are not designed straight. Had a mate who had issues, got a brand new replacement that he thought was also bent before this was pointed out.
It would make sense to go Deore/SLX, I was eyeing XTR even, but apparently XTR cages tend to break as they are carbon? So XT it is for the bling factor. For how it works, even Deore will be fine, just heavy.
I've only tried out 12spd Shimano on an e-bike, but I was blown away by the quality of the shifting there. It's not a long term test, but comparing to Sram 12spd on an e-bike (Bosch for the Shimano, Specialized SL, so lower power, for the Sram drivetrain) is a night and day difference.
The Shimano thing is a complete curiosity, otherwise I'm very much in the Sram camp (loving the Code RSCs and RS suspension). With Sram I'd have to put a new derailleur on it anyway, so it would be expensive (not cheap even with GX) and I am in no way putting on a 10-52T cassette. That is just idiotic, that last jump.
What I have had is the inner cage just kinda fall apart...then, I buy a new one and order the parts to fix the GX. I now have three...I did upgrade to XX1 and that issue is over...but, went to AXS XX1 so that I can have coal powered shifting and do my part to warm the earth for everyone near the arctic circles....
I broke 2 GX Derailleurs in 3 years and now broke 1 XTR in 2. Derailleurs I find to be one of the easier things to break on your bike. I don't see one brand being stronger than another, it just comes down to good line choice and trying preserve it. You could also try bending your hanger then straightening it a bit to loosen it up so it bends easier on impact to help the derailleur. When I broke my XTR my hanger was still perfect, which was super annoying.
Personally I like the feel of Shimano shifting better, so I would stick with just replacing your SLX and trying to take better lines.
As for hangers being softer, given how many 'it's not working' (Sram) derailleurs I fix by straightening the hanger, I'd say they need to be stronger. And considering an impact from the bottom broke your derailleur (@jasbushey), I'd say a softer hanger (that would take the impact and save the derailleur) would break or bend so far, that the derailleur might be pulled into the spokes (if not bent outwards). And would likely be broken anyway in the aftermath.
With the upper pulley moving backwards and forwards going through the gears (being offset the rotation oft he cage makes the pulley follow the cassette instead of the angle of the paralelogram) a bent derailleur hanger will mean unequal side-to-side movement depending on which part of the cassette you are in. The movement will be larger in the small cog (where the pulley is right above the cage pivot) than int he bigger cogs, where it is behind the cage pivot.
Older 2x stuff dealt with cassette following with the angle of the parallelogram, while the derailleur cage took out the slack from shifting at the front. That's why a bent derailleur didn't have such a big impact on shifting performance (that and less gears int he same space, I will give you that). One click of the shifter was about the same movement side-to-side anywhere. With "X-horizon" we got derailleurs that are much less affected by external shocks (less flaying around), but the whole shifting thing became a bit more 3D than it was before.
Just last week I straightened two derailleur hangers where the GX mechs had very nice and quite fresh gashes on them. And both worked perfectly fine after straightening the hanger.
Personally I've been thinking the best option would be to use a B2 (52t compatible) SRAM derailleur/shifter with the Shimano HG+ chain and cassette. I know it's been done successfully by other people. If TRP could accommodate bigger than a 50t cog I would probably go that route and be done with both brands derailleurs.
I personally like SRAM shifting and brakes a lot. But the mechs have a couple annoying flaws that others have mentioned. Pay attention to the following and SRAM Eagle will be impressively durable:
1. Derailleur hanger needs to be kept straight. Makes a HUGE difference.
2. You gotta clean/repack the stupid little bearings in the jockey wheels a couple times a winter.
3. The GX derailleurs have a metal-on-metal interface between the b-bolt and derailleur body that will wear it out. Replace the GX b-bolt with an after-market X01 b-bolt ($25-ish) before you wear out the derailleur. X01 has a nylon busing and O-rings. And then keep that b-bolt for future GX derailleurs.
Or just pay way too much for X01. They're impressively durable, but I don't quite understand the price.
I have a few friends regularly killing Shimano 12 spd mechs, but haven't tried them myself. Both brands have their flaws at the moment.
edit: read your reply. Sometimes it's just bad luck that will kill whatever you're riding. Sometimes people have chains too short or something like that. Derailleur bend outward could be chain too short wrenching on the derailleur at full bottom-out in the big cog. Unlikely, but I've seen it happen to *a friend* (or something like that...)
More disappointing, the XTR shifter I have also failed recently, the upshift lever only engages occasionally, otherwise it just moves freely and does nothing. First time I've broken a Shimano shifter, I rarely buy XTR stuff because the price premium over XT to save a tiny bit of weight and be a bit more bling seems hard to justify. I did some research with a view to fixing it, and discovered it's a pretty common problem. Also found out it was still under warranty (still waiting for replacement to arrive), but using an SLX one at the moment because that's what I could get my hands on quickly. Works just as well.
I just wish Sram would bring out an 11 speed 52 cassestte, i love the shimano 11spd one(other than reliability)
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