http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=885

Deore ones 8 quid
XT ones 24 quid

Any real difference?

I've got some cheap Tacx ones in my XTR mech and they've been no bother at all.

xt ones have bearings in a believe?

+1 for the Tacx ones, they are excellent.

Cheap ones tend not to float sideways on the top jockey wheel which if you look at the genuine ones they float sideways in order to help with gear selection. 😀

Ceramic bush with proper seals, and cartridge bearing in XT,plastic running directly on metal bushings and relatively unsealed on the Deores.

are you sure about that peak monster?
surely gear selection is defined by where exactly the jockey is.
if its loose and free to slop about, thats a bit counter prodiuctive isnt it?

olly.. I bought a new SLX last year and thought it was faulty because of the slop, but it is how they come…..

I think the floating top jockey wheel is protected by a Shimano patent

It is, 0.8mm side to side allows for slight misalignment in the indexing, it was this patent that apparently saw Suntour off.

fair enough.
every day is a school day 🙂

I thought mine wasnt right and swapped the wheels over… even when I got told about the slop and why I didnt bother swapping it back. Bike got knicked shortly after… got taxx ones in an aging XTR now they have lasted really well…. no slop… or they might be BBB…

Dunno about differences in how they work, but some bog-standard Shimano ones wouldn't fit in my XT mech- just ever so slightly too fat.

I had to cut short my ride on tuesday because of trouble with one of the XT Jockey wheels splitting. Had some Deore ones in my bit box at home so changed them over will be giving them a good tryout tomorrow.

xt ones have bearings in a believe?

I am going to see if I can get bearings to fit deore ones and give them a try.

Silly question: do the Tacx ones fit MTB and road? Just looking at some here and it just says "shimano 9 spd".

I think TACX work for both road and mtb, they come with a load of inserts to fit different systems.

I used to use BBB but they kept seizing up far too often. I moved on to LX/XT with no trouble so far (6 months) but am attracted in a tarty, bling sort of way to the KCMC ones tho' I'll probably never buy any!

The £16 difference buys a lot of post ride drinkies! When my XTR ones wore out, I replaced them with Deore. No difference in performance other than the fact that I don't get seized bearings with the Deore ones as they run on a simple bush arrangement.

Cheers

Sanny