Deore med. cage are cheaper – is there any real world difference? For a 11-36 cassette with poss future upgrade to expander ring.

Ta

The Deore will be an easier setup with a expander, zee really needs a rad cage.

cheers, no difference in spring retention?

Ta.

Depends what you’re looking for really.

The Zee is basically repackaged SLX with a shorter cage.

Most of the advantage is in the short cage, which you’re losing as soon as you fit a longer cage.

I have a hacked up Zee with an old carbon xtr cage which is pointless from the view of why the Zee was attractive in the first place, but saved a mangle mech which was too new to want to just bin…

The Deore will be an easier setup with a expander, zee really needs a rad cage.

Only for a 42T rear, it works fine on my 30T front 40T rear setup with just a longer B-screw.

Zee is more like SLX so should be better build/lighter/longer lasting.

Might struggle on an expander cassette as the cage isn’t designed to take up that much chain slack even if the mecha can sqing onto the 40t, especialy if you have a FS bike with lots of chainstay growth.

If you intend to use a RAD cage then they’ll all be much of a muchness, if not I’d try an SLX or deore first as it’s more likely to work without the RAD cage.

Magic, thanks folks, I’ll go Deore.

I recently fitted a 10spd Zee mech and shifter on XT m771 11/36 block with a 40 Oneup expander, and I have had loads of trouble with indexing ever since, just when I think ive got it right it lets me know I haven’t 😕
everything was brand new and I have even changed the inner and outer cable to another new one just incase there was a problem with it, its just the same 🙄
im thinking of trying a mid cage XT mech to see if it makes any difference.

FWIW 10-speed is more sensitive to cable ‘tightness’ than 9-speed