Seems they’re not as tough as Saint.

Mine had broken where the “X”-shaped link joins the box where the clutch is – one arm of the “X” had bent and come away from the pivot, so it was hanging on at just one side.

That said, it survived about 15 uplifts on Saturday in that state, and after careful application of a hammer, it now more or less attached to the pivot at both sides, and has a full range of ten gears again, if a bit clicky at the extremes, so not all that bad.

Plus I have the satisfaction of fixing something by hitting it with a hammer, which is always nice.

I thik you’ve just made it ‘differently broken with a hammer’ rather than fixed 😉

wwaswas – Member
I thik you’ve just made it ‘differently broken with a hammer’ rather than fixed

Yeah, you could call it a less inconvenient sort of broken. But the “X” is now attached to the pivot at both sides, and moving freely (there’s a little play, can’t get it bent back perfectly), so I’m happy.

I think we all need a picture of this fix FTW!

Bodge-tastic

definitely not as tough as Saint – i’m on my 3rd in as many months….

Not much to see, other than a few scrapes where I hammered it. To be honest, I’d imagine Shimano use the exact same method in the factory, but with some sort of sophisticated non-scratching hammer.

fuzzhead – Member
definitely not as tough as Saint – i’m on my 3rd in as many months….

I’ve already ordered a Saint to replace it. Kind of wondering if I should have bothered now….. maybe keep it in the bag for a bit, return it if this holds up.

definitely not as tough as Saint – i’m on my 3rd in as many months….

why not buy saint after it broke the 1st time? would have saved the second failure? 8) and the added expense

Has anyone tried them with a slider style chain device (silentguide).

Read somewhere that the clutch makes the chain dig into the guide really quickly, which would be anoying as it’s done several hundred miles with barely a mark so far with a (non clutch) XT mech which is to be moved to another bike.

under half the price of Saint, plus i didn’t expect to lose as many mechs through my back wheel….

number 4 will be Saint methinks

My first one failed at the same point which caused it to get tangled up with the chain and cassette mid-ride and end up a completely mangled twisted broken mess. Was replaced under warranty…

Hmm. Didn’t think to go the warranty route, as I’d assumed a rock had done the damage. If it’s something of a common fault, I probably should have.

b*ll*cks, sounds like i should have claimed under warranty as well. Oh well…

So, happy as I was with the fix, when the Saint arrived, I ended up putting it on – it was just too shiny and tough lookign to send back. The linkages is massive compared to the Zee, should be a whole lot stronger. Zee goes in the spares bin for now.

that looks very nice.

Just make sure you have a spare hanger now 😀

Kinda what I expected. The Zee stuff looks like some SLX/Deore stuff cobbled together and re-branded as a downhill groupset, whereas Saint has clearly been designed from the bottom up to be tough-as.

it’s no secret that the Zee stuff is not much different to SLX/Deore as it’s the same price point. It just provides the gearing options that Saint does for a cheaper price – ie short cage, single chain ring etc.