Really fancy one of those new XTR ‘clutch’ rear mechs (RD-M985) to go 1 x 10. However £120 for a rear mech is a bit excessive (for me anyway).

Just wondered what the likely timescale would be for this system to trickle down to XT? Is it usually one year at XTR then XT then SLX etc. Or 2 years for XTR then XT?

You could just go SRAM and not have to worry about it.

usually about 5mph

£169 for shadow plus.Xt ,slx and the new hone replacement groupset are getting it this summer.

You could just go SRAM and not have to worry about it.

How would that help? They don’t have anything remotely similar. And £120 doesn’t even get their 2nd tier mech!

It’s usually a year with most technologies, but that mech slipped in under the radar, so probably end of the year I’d guess.

SRAM are doing their own version aswell.I’m only going off what the shimano rep told me yesterday.

How would that help? They don’t have anything remotely similar

Because the mech’s have one less spring already? I’ve a horst link frame and the only times its had issues is with shimano mechs, SRAM’s been fine.

And £120 doesn’t even get their 2nd tier mech!

x5 = deore
x7 = SLX
X9 = XT
X0 = XTR
XX = yumeva

I paid £110 for an X9 mech, X7 shifters, 1050 casette and chain, hardly bank breaking.

What’s your comparison based on though? That’s just their own hierarchys, they don’t really map to each other that neatly. Most XTR is lighter than XX (cassette excluded, but then the XX cassette is more than twice the price), but cheaper than X.0, not really that straight forward. Yumeya is a few tuning bits for the 9 speed group, designed to make it more bling.

They may have fewer springs, but that’s not the issue the Shadow Plus mech combats.

Sounds like they’ve got a rival coming out though, which I didn’t know.

I stand by my comment though, an X.0 mech (ie their 2nd tier) retails for £210, so at £120 is an absolute steal.

Interesting that Sram may do something similar, but I would still stick with Shimano. All my spare bits are Shimano.

If XT is getting a make over in the summer then I’ll keep my figures crossed.

True, but since swapping to SRAM (from normal shimano admitedly nott he shadow stuff) I’ve not had any of the issues that all the new shimano stuff is supposed to deal with, chain tension’s been fine and the mech doesn’t fowl the stay or pivot. I also prefer SRAM shifters but thats a personal preferance so not really arguable either way.

Aye, but this is Shadow Plus, not Shadow, which does make a tangable difference, it’s not about avoiding losing chain tension (any mech does that), it’s about increasing it to reduce chain slap. Which SRAM cannot do, yet.

I’m not arguing the merits of SRAM vs Shimano, or whether Shadow mechs are any good or not, which is personal.

£120.00 is a lot for a mech but small price for a chain slap hatter, got one of the xtr mech about a month back and think its great. I would not be surprised to see the clutch system appearing on 2013 xt (so possible latter this year). Since it works really well, and makes a noticeable difference and since no one else does anything similar yet makes sense to bring it onto the cheaper mechs ASAP to stay ahead.

Well they’ve only just launched new XT and it doesn’t have it, so I wouldn’t hold your breath.

Although they did bring out Dyna Sys 10-sp in the end of the old XT – so perhaps someone more knowledgeable will know better than me.

All academic to me as I use 9sp mid-cage SLX mechs and there’s FA chance that they’ll get it!

Well that didn’t take long.

XT & SLX getting it. Cool.

Aye, makes sense. Anyone found it you can then do away with a chain guide on a single ring?

It may weigh more than a ‘normal’ Shadow mech, but if you can take the chain guide off that’s offset quite nicely!

I’ve been using my XTR one with just an E13 XCX top guide and it works spot on with no dropped chains yet. Don’t think I’d like to not have the top guide for the riding I do but it might work ok for less rocky stuff. Thing about the top mount is it allows you to pedal the chain back on if it does go anywhere. The clutch in the mech won’t help with that.