SRAM?

Sambuca

After a good few years running Shimano (deore Slx xt) Im onto a new bike with SRAM X9, I've found it to need lots more lever pressure to shift and isn't as quick as my Xt equipped bike- is this the general concensus ? The cables etc all seem fine for tension and indexing it just dosent seem anywhere near as precise? Not a big rant but am interested to see if this is how they are ?

Chunkers1980

That's why I use Shimano.

nicklouse

Sambuca wrote:

- is this the general concensus ?

nope.

.blitz

SRAM's shifters are a lot more clunk-click and while they might not be ultimately as sweet as Shimano's finest I find they need a lot less attention.

Full outers and X9 on the Rize I haven't adjusted the gears for over two years. Partial outers and XT on the Ramones needs a fettle every few rides. Short cage X7 on the Voltage is proper bolt-action shifting blam-blam-blam it's a joy to use.

Thewaylander

What Blitz says,

They need alot less attention to keep working than shimano though maybe not quite as light or smooth. I prefer SRAM due to the nocks and bangs my gear takes

Anonymous

Had Deore shifters and SLX Shadow mech in the past and was frequently adjusting that to get it right. Was always ending up shifting two down then one up to get the right gear, re-index and it would be okay for a short while then it would do it again. Never found the shifters easy to move, felt they had some resistance, despite a complete overhaul, SP41 cabling, well lubed.

Got SRAM 10 speed X9 shifters and X0 and X9 mechs on the two bikes now. Rear shifting the lever is very easy to shift in my opinion. It may not be smooth enough for some but it's damn solid and you know it's in gear, it stays in gear, and I've had little reason to make adjustments. Also, it's great at rapid shifting. The Deore was terrible. Whilst it could do three at a time it would need a finger on the shifter to get it shift after clicking, so have to do one at a time.

Have taken a lot of knocks and tumbles with the SRAM stuff and still indexed fine.

lawman

bit of unfair comparison dead kenny, considering the price difference between deore and X9 and X0!

I've always used shimano, when I first rode the new sram stuff two years ago, I thought it was great, the ratios were great from the 2x chainsets and the cassettes had a massive range, thought the shifting was pretty clunky though. Bought a full 10 speed XT group and it has been faultless in over a year now, I haven't adjusted it once. Its light, smooth, its hard wearing and its well-priced. I recently bought a SRAM 1050 cassette for my hardtail, mainly because it was so cheap, £25 at the time from CRC... biggest pile of shite I've ever put on a bike, its clunky, heavy, its wearing like its made of cheese, its just plain awful. With a RRP of £65, I wouldn't have one again! Alot of friends have had problems with sram shifters too, and I don't like how clunky they are, and i've always thought the shift levers were a weird, un-ergnomic shape compared to shimano. Add in shadow plus, a genuine innovation that will surely be everywhere in a few years time, and the new generation of shimano brakes being top of the pile, i'd go shimano everytime

Anonymous

Deore shifter + SLX mech. Not a match yeah but closer in price to X9. Not X0 of course, but ignore that, I get the same result between X9 on the one bike and X0 on the other.

OP however had "Deore SLX XT". Not sure what bit's what there (is that Deore XT shifters or plain Deore?). And comparing then with X9.

I recently bought a SRAM 1050 cassette for my hardtail, mainly because it was so cheap, £25 at the time from CRC... biggest pile of shite I've ever put on a bike, its clunky, heavy, its wearing like its made of cheese, its just plain awful.

Weird that. Got 1050 on both bikes - no problem with them. Weight is a zero factor for me anyway. I wouldn't tell the difference between a weight weenie one and a regular. Clunky - nope. Feels and sounds just the same as every other cassette. Wearing like cheese - nope. Hard wearing in my experience. If anything I'd have though a lightweight alloy cassette is going to wear fast. It's tough enough to be wearing into my swiss cheese CB hub though (alloy)

Only issue I've got with the 1050 is there's a conflict with Crank Brothers wheels. Little screws on the back hit the spoke mount on the hub unless you use spacers (which CB provide as they've noted this problem too it seems).

Chunkers1980

I think people who say Shimano needs tweaking more often don't know how to setup gears and are unable to feel what's going on with the gears. OR is just one of the arguments for SRAM that they like to peddle everytime in the hope of adding some weight to their stance.

Anonymous

Chunkers1980 wrote:

I think people who say Shimano needs tweaking more often don't know how to setup gears and are unable to feel what's going on with the gears.

If that's the case, why would SRAM kit not need tweaking? If they're crap at setting them up, but they just work fine anyway, then there's something they're doing right

ddraver

deadkenny wrote:

Chunkers1980 wrote:

I think people who say Shimano needs tweaking more often don't know how to setup gears and are unable to feel what's going on with the gears.

If that's the case, why would SRAM kit not need tweaking? If they're crap at setting them up, but they just work fine anyway, then there's something they're doing right

Oh Snap!! :P

Thewaylander

Chunkers1980 wrote:

I think people who say Shimano needs tweaking more often don't know how to setup gears and are unable to feel what's going on with the gears. OR is just one of the arguments for SRAM that they like to peddle everytime in the hope of adding some weight to their stance.

This is a slightl lack of understanding of how things work.

It's down to the 1:1 cable ratio on SRAM which rough means more cable moves which can cause tougher shifts and less smoothness but means stretch and adjustment doesn't need to be so preceise as shimano.

There you go.

delcol

2 moth ago i would of slated shimano being a sram man all my bike were running sram from xo to x7 the only bike with shimano was my flat bar road bike. and it cheap shimano stuff at that..
my only other experience with shimano was on my first mtb six years ago and it was deore shifters with xt mech, so not the best...

then father christmass bought me a xtr mech and shifters for christmass i waited for the crappy weather to clear then i fitted the shimano xtr set up, and have to say i was and still am very impressed the shifting is so precise it shifts so quick and crisp.. i did have to adjust it after a few rides but i put this down to cable stretch...

i still have bikes running sram and still like the sram stuff,, but i would definatly consider shimano in the future..

Sambuca

Just to confirm I meant I'd had bikes with all types of shimano, at the mo I have XT shifters and SLX mechs, for me very light action and precise- my X9 needs much more effort and seems to shift slower, i can take on board the comments about SRAM being more robust as they do feel solid.....

mrmonkfinger

Most of the problems I've ever had with shifters have been down to crap getting in the cables. The rest, well banging a mech on a tree stump tends to put a stop to precise shifting, one spring has gone weak, and that's about it.

sloppycowpat

I always used shimano until a bought a fury in 07 i think and loved the sram kit and have never looked back but haven't used a front mech for 5 years on an mtb, sram front mechs are very violent on a down shift took a bit of getting used to i thought i had broken it every time i shifted :oops:

+1 for bolt action x7

i use shimano on my road bike though

bails87

lawman wrote:

Add in shadow plus, a genuine innovation that will surely be everywhere in a few years time,

Sram are getting ready to launch a similar thing to shadow plus.

YeehaaMcgee

deadkenny wrote:

Chunkers1980 wrote:

I think people who say Shimano needs tweaking more often don't know how to setup gears and are unable to feel what's going on with the gears.

If that's the case, why would SRAM kit not need tweaking? If they're crap at setting them up, but they just work fine anyway, then there's something they're doing right

My SRAM setup needs just as much fettling as my Shomano setup. Which is none, really. Adjusting either is/was so infrequent that it makes no difference.

supersonic

bails87 wrote:

lawman wrote:

Add in shadow plus, a genuine innovation that will surely be everywhere in a few years time,

Sram are getting ready to launch a similar thing to shadow plus.

It looks like a bag of meccano hanging off the dropout.

lawman

supersonic wrote:

bails87 wrote:

lawman wrote:

Add in shadow plus, a genuine innovation that will surely be everywhere in a few years time,

Sram are getting ready to launch a similar thing to shadow plus.

It looks like a bag of meccano hanging off the dropout.

the sram one doesn't look as well thought out I have to admit, and props to shimano for getting it out there first, right down to slx, as we only see deore on £600 and below bikes, slx is gonna be pretty standard kit for most riders soon, X9 on the other hand isn't gonna be as widespread. The only downside of XTR is the price, the cranks in particular. its just insane as the rest of the kit is relatively good value.

Anonymous

Not convinced on clutch mechs. One more component to jam up on you and fail and what does it offer that a good chain device doesn't? The latter being mature products that have been well tested and pretty robust too.

supersonic

Less weight, and I think less to smash/go wrong? That said, they are not as secure as a chain device, but for say XC riders wanting a bit moer security, integrating it into the mech seems a good solution.