Deore front mechs

Anonymous

Just a question about Deore front mech, are these good as XT and XTR?

I am always puzzled to see Deore fm on £2k bike while the rest of kit is XT and XTR, why companies do seem to do that now, it's making the owners to spend more money later to upgrade to match the rest of the spec?

In the old days of the '90's, you would see new bikes have the same spec all over with either LX, XT and XTR alone rather mis-match on latest new bikes.

So Deore fm can do the job of XT and XTR now?

The Northern Monkey

its all about saving money.
or less spent on drive and more on forks for example. Cheaper to upgrade a mech.

The Big Cheese

Apart from weight, front mechs are pretty basic in what they do.

You won't notice any difference in the shifts on a front mech between a XTR and a Deore.

Shifters and rear mechs on the other hand..........

It's all about the weight, even on expensive bikes, money has to be saved on certain parts, normally the headset, front mech etc

It's only on 'Top end' bikes you see XTR front mechs

Will Snow

tbh can you really tell the difference between any front mech?? bar weight, they are all pretty much the same.

nicklouse

Check the specs and your memory.

it has always been a habit of upping the spec of the rear mech, It is rare to see a full group set unless a special edition or the very top of the line.

Northwind

Do yourself a pepsi taste challenge with an LX front mech and an XT and see if you can tell the difference. Money's better spent almost anywhere else.

paulrockliffe

I had a Deore front mech, it was fine for a while, but the pivots quickly became slack, so the bit the chain runs through became very loose and when dropping a gear the mech would slowly retract over the course of about a minute. Never had any problems with any other mech before.

Hopefully the Hone (what happened to those?) mech I've just fitted will last a bit longer.

joshtp

my deore f.mech shifts as well as any other iv used, including a xt iv used, its all about weight for the f.mech, but shifty quality is the same

Chunkers1980

Build quality perhaps, my previous Deore developed a rattle in the swing arm that would vibrate over bumps, not a lot, but enough to annoy. That was 2 years old and now coming up to the same with XT and perfect so far, but no difference in the actual shifting.

Old_school_JSS

Deore, LX and XT there is a nothing in it, not sure if that applied to the 2010 range but certainly the previous couple of generations if you have them side by side they are pretty much indistinguishable from each other bar branding.

XTR is always that little bit better though, bit more mass around moving joints and fat trimmed off by machine where it's really not needed.

stubs

In an emergency I once had to fit an Alivio F Mech which I think is one down from Deore. It shifted just fine and it ended up staying on the frame for about 8 months.

With F mechs its the cable that is more important. Change your cable and outer regulary keep it all free of mud and any mech will do fine.

thomasali

Deore tend to seize up easier than XT / XTR, XTR also has a stronger spring. My fave front mech is the old 1998 Xtr M952, extremely light and shifts nicer than current models.

Sarnian

A couple of months ago I changed my XTR front mech to a Hone, I cant tell any difference, and one of my other bikes have Deore on It and I still can't tell between the two.

Northwind

I just fitted an SLX double to the soul, to my surprise it's about 30 grams lighter than XT. It dooes look absolutely s**t though, with its 2p plastic top. Shifts just like XT but about 10 million times easier to set up, if only because XT needs to be spot on with a 22-36 double whereas this just needs to be bolted on the right way up.