Hello there,
Sorry if it’s a dumb question but here it goes:
My father went to work with my Zesty. Went cross-chained and snapped the XTR M970 rear mech with the hanger. I’m looking for a replacement but I was thinking of putting a newer XT on instead of an old XTR because of it being better value for the money. BUT I’m not sure if the 2012/13 XT rear mech is good for 9 speed setup. May I beg you for advice?

Clutch type?

Very good question. Sry I’m a newbie. It’s a stock ’08 Zesty if this helps.

2013 Deore with Shadow Plus.

Makes sense.

Big fan of clutch mechs here too

Isn’t there a better option than a Deore?

Not sure the current 10 speed mtb mechs work with 9 speed shifters.
I`d look at Merlin and see what they have.

There is some really poor advice here.

If you have 9 speed shifters, you must use a 9 speed mech. The 10 speed stuff including the clutch mechs will not work as the pull ratio is different.

Just pick your price point, the more you spend, the lighter and smoother it will be and in my experience the longer it lasts (damage excepted).

Boris is correct, no clutch mech for you I am afraid.

The cheapest shadow mech you can find. The shadow mechs are slightly less likely to take a rock hit as they don’t stick out as far. Weight savings are minimal in the grand scheme of things.

At the end of the day it is a vulnerable little piece of engineering hanging off of the side of a bike that should be ridden fast over rough ground, why spend loads of money on something that is going to be bent beyond use long before it wears out?

Boris and Danny make a good point. They all function much the same,only real difference is a small amount of weight.Shist quality tends to be determined more by shifters. An SLX shadow is probably the sweet spot in terms of performance v price.

Shimano 10 speed mtb mechs only work with 10 speed mtb shifters

Sure there is a spacer mod
For SRAM type 2 mechs make them 9 speed though

slx 9 speed would get my money

Xt shadow mechs are pretty cheap in the classifieds. £25 ish

Got an slx on my Inbred and an xtr on my Stumpjumper…

Does the xtr look fancier? Yes.
Does the xtr perform noticeably better? Nope. It’s a teeny bit crisper.

SLX will be fine. XT will also be fine.

10 speed rear mechs only work with 10 speed shifters? Strange. I’m using 9 speed XT shifters with a 2013 SLX non-clutch rear mech without any issues. How does the mech know if the shifters are 9 or 10 clicks?

I used to use a 9 speed XTR mech with 8 speed gripshift too. Without any dramas.

Don’t you need a gromit thing to use a 10 speed mech with 9 speed shifters?

fwiw ive used a 9 speed slx shifter with a 10 speed (non clutch) xt mech fine, obviously the top or bottom sprocket doesnt work is all

Kimbers have you adjusted the h/l limit screws? I have absolutely no issues running 9 speed xt shifters and a 10 speed slx rear mech. Full range of gears (new chain and cassette too).

Kimbers- aphex
any chance of posting a vid of the 9sp shifters and 10sp mech working together. i’d be interested in seeing how the index up and down the cassette.
Normally with a 10sp mech they go out of sync mid cassette.
Cheers
Paul

I’ll see what I can do. I rode to work today and made an effort to swtich through every gear just incase I was totally making it up. It was fine. Although obviously, when I video it, something will go wrong.

aphex_2K
9spd shifters, 10spd mech, 9spd cassette? or 10spd cassette?

9 speed shifter and 10 speed mech shouldn’t work (properly) in either Shimanoland or SRAMland.

As correctly pointed out above several times, the shifters pull a different amount of cable.

Neither side knows how many clicks there are at the other end. They just want the right amount of cable, pls.

Up as far as 9sp Shimano vs SRAM was all you really needed to watch.

In 10sp Shimano road and mtb pull ratios are now different from each other and both different to either 9sp or SRAM. SRAM 10sp road and mtb pull ratios are interchangeable but slightly different to 9sp (still referred to as 1:1 in marketing)

Obviously with some tuning any combination will kinda sorta work possibly with the odd skipped mid ratio as suggested above – how acceptable this is depends on the individual. It may be no nastier than knackered old cables.

There are/have been various pulley and spacer bodges but YMMV. Using correct combinations is easier and more reliable.

I’ve got a 9-speed XT shadow mech in pretty nice nick which I could do for £25 posted, incidentally.

vincienup – Member

9 speed shifter and 10 speed mech shouldn’t work (properly) in either Shimanoland or SRAMland.

But does work perfectly on the contested borders of Sram9speedonia and Shimano10speedstan. Well, with a little UN peacekeeping spacer.

I’m not even completely sure what that means.

but if you are buying a new mech, you are bound to a need a cassette and chain soon…. no just the cost of a shifter (zee do rh only) you could go 10speed and get a clutch mech!

Just bought the ‘old’ XT 9spd shadow (2008 model). I’ve consulted with many ppl, bike shops also. According to them 10spd can be set up with 9 speed but due to the different amount of cable pulled (as mentioned here) things don’t work as good as they should further up or down the rear cassette. (Around mid it’s ok). So to avoid any malfunction I’ve decided to give up on fancyness and just go with XT. Would have been nice to have a clutch mech tho.

Going 3×10: I’d have to buy also new shifters and cassette so I didn’t bother (front mech too? – dunno about that). Oh and I recently replaced the chain as well. I think I’ll have enough fun even without the benefits of a 10spd setup and save some money (just bought a road bike too so I really don’t want to spend much on bikes for a while.) Also I am not an agressive rider so chain slap isn’t a huge problem for me.

Thanks for the feedback everyone! Much appreciated.

9 speed cassette pg990, 9 speed kmc chain, slx rear mech and xt triple front.

Ahh…….

OK so in the LBS I asked for an SLX 9 speed rear mech and they told me they only had the 10 speed but it will work. Far too accepting of the (not so) sage advice from the mechanic. On the mech it says (dun dun duuuuun)

M662

*slaps forehead*

I’ll shut m’ big fat gob now.