I decided to replace the gripshifters on my 20 yr old specialized hardrock. It has shimano mechs – something like Alivio. I bought some sram X3 trigger shifters and naively thought they would work fine but it seems the shifters are pulling too much cable on the back and not enough on the front mech. Are these not compatible with old shimano stuff?

Only 11 spd is compatible as far as I know, less gears than that you’ll need the same brand shifter and rear mech (fronts are generally interchangeable but would depend on whether its 2x 3x and some other factors).

The sram stuff that was comparable with shimano was the attack series. The X series stuff is not compatible with shimano.

Thanks both much appreciated.

The sram rocket, attack and quartz shifters are ok with shimano.