Managed to break my rear mech at the weekend and need a replacement. I run a double bash set up so would like a short cage(medium in shimano speak) and was wondering what peoples opinions are. I can get either for pretty much the same price do I go for XT bling value or is SLX more robust as I'm not a particularity subtle rider.

A short cage Shimano MTB derailleur would be the Saint. The medium cage XT and SLX derailleurs have, not surprisingly, a longer cage than the short cage Saint. Neither XT nor SLX are available with a short cage.

ok sorry………….. I would like a shorter rear mech, are there any opinions on the XT SLX medium cage rear mechs? 😀

Bump

Tried the shop websites?

I run medium cage XTR (regular) and XT (Shadow) set ups and the Shadow "medium" is more like a long in a standard mech- it's long, so better to go for the short Saint or a medium regular XT as a "medium" SLX will come up massive.

XT – slightly lighter, more expensive, slightly more fragile (alu cage)
SLX – cheaper, slightly heavier, slightly more robust.

You won't be able to tell the difference when changing gears.

It's probably not a choice worth losing sleep over.

spokes taa for this, running a shadow XT at the minute anyhow but would like to keep it as a shadow mech in a medium flavour. do you know if the SLX will take a bit more of clattering than the Xt noticed there is more steel used in its construction.

cynic-al, never thought of looking at shop websites, cheers for that.

SLX is quality stuff, it'll be fine and does work nicely. I doubt you'd notice the difference without getting fancier shifters.