Could anyone answer this question for me….I currently have just put a 10 speed shimano zee clutch mech on my 9 speed and it works almost perfectly thanks to a sram x9 9 speed shifter,saying almost perfectly it would be perfect if someone never sold me a duff shifter on ebay (no return on low gear trigger) my question is…would a 10 speed sram x9 shifter work on this set up?would it just have a gear shift extra or is it different altogether?reason is it’s easy to get a new x9 10 speed shifter,not so much 9 speed

Not sure, but if you need a new shifter anyway, why not get a 10 speed shimano one?

I don’t know much about this kind of thing I just read that a sram had the same pull ratio as a 10 speed rear mech and it worked with 9 speed without needing to put spacers on the mech.wasnt planning on getting a clutch mech at the time of recently putting a new 9 speed chain and cassette on the bike or I would have just went 10 speed at the time

Someone else can probably answer this better than me, but as I understand it, Sram 9 speed and Shimano 10 speed shifters have almost the same pull ratio. You’ll likely get more accurate shifting if you get a new Shimano shifter, as it’s designed to work with your rear derailleur.

Those two are almost cross compatible. If you put a 5.5mm spacer under the cable pinch bolt it’ll be just about there.

10 speed SRAM won’t work. 10 speed Shimano obviously will, with a 10 speed cassette.

From what I’ve tried and understand, a 9spd cassette needs a 9spd shifter, the mech only moves according to how much cable the shifter allows

You’ve misunderstood then.

njee20 please explain then and administer your wisdom

The cable pull ratio is the significant factor in how far the mech moves, ie x amount of cable pulled at the lever results in y amount of movement at the mech, the ‘speed’ isn’t wholly relevant. There are four notably different ratios from SRAM and Shimano (I’m not getting into 11 speed as heads will just explode):

– Shimano 7/8/9 speed MTB and road, plus 10 speed road
– Shimano 10 speed MTB
– SRAM 9 speed MTB
– SRAM 10 speed road/MTB

Your mech and shifter must be from the same ‘category’ above to work harmoniously, SRAM 9 speed shifters are close to Shimano 10 speed mechs, hence you can make them work as I said previously with a spacer under the cable pinch bolt, just to alter the leverage ratio very slightly.

There were approximately 31 threads a day on this, when 10 speed first came out, luckily virtually everyone has now got their head around it. Just in time for 11 speed to become widespread and we’ll start all over again.

Thanks for your replies guys,my set up of 9 speed cassette,9 speed sram x9 shifter and 10 speed shimano clutch mech works fine even without the spacer it’s just some b€¥lend sold me a faulty shifter claiming it was fully working.was just wondering if I could have went 10 speed shifter with 9 speed cassette and chain

So file an eBay dispute as item not as described and send it back… 😕