Is there really any functional difference apart from weight?

Big stick through rear wheel this afternoon has snapped my XT shadow rear mech and bucked my rim.

Am hoping that the wheel can be trued, but currently as poor as a church mouse, that's just had an enormous tax bill on the very day his wife ran off with another mouse, taking all the cheese, so very tempted just to stick on a Deore rear mech.

Haven't used this generation of Deore, so would be interested to know if there is any functional difference between it, SLX and XT?
Also, is the service life of Deore comparable with the others?

Thanks in advance for the replies.

I have just bought a new shadow deore mech for a mates bike I am building up and am really impressed with it, I would put one on my bike without any hesitation having now seen one.

It is as good as old XT was ~5 years ago IMO

Deore on mine. That way I don't get too upset when I rip them off.

You can spend the money you save on a milk shake 😉

Frankly, I blame you anyway:
Happened on Giants Seat, in the area that's just been cleared.

Right next to an 'Archery Competition, don't stray from the path!' sign, so it could have been much, much worse.

Will go and see 'Shaun of the Shiny Things' in the morning and see what he can do. Mech is terminal, but should be able to save the rim.

Did you get as far as the berms with Mrs S (if you'll forgive my intrusion)?

Did she rate it?

XT is around 30g lighter than SLX. XT has (soft) aluminium 'lowers', ie the jockey wheel cage. SLX has steel. I've seen a couple of bent XT ones
I've no idea what the difference between SLX and deore are though

Merlin have XT Shadow for £50, SLX for £35, Deore Shadow for £28 as a guide
In the good ol' days (mid 2008) I got an XT one for £30 ..
I've not bent mine though, only one on a one day alpine hire bike

Yes, we did the first bermed section twice – it's ace.

Loved it all TBH, as did Sue, but she wasn't too keen on the on the drop to the bridge.

Think that bit may mean you have one extra marshall and one less race entry! I'll still be racing (!) though.

Spannered bike just before second big drop, so we'll have to do that one next week.

Ta for the response James.