Any thoughts on these bits of kit?

I used to run the latter but switched few months ago to x9. Since them I have been plagued with ghost shifting whenever its mucky out there and I have knackered two mechs in minor crashes. Seems a bit temperamental.

I am getting nostalgic for shimano XT, which never ailed once.

Any comments on one versus t'other?

my experience is the exact opposite of yours. wouldn't touch shimano gears with a barge pole.

I prefer Shimano to SRAM, although I've not tried SRAM for 18 months or so.

Maybe you should get your gear hanger checked to make sure it didn't get bent in one of those crashes.

I went from SRAM to XT, superb shifting wouldn't go back

Tha mechanic at Afan was saying the x9 works on a parallelogram so it it gets a knock it is harder to reshape vs xt. Already check mech hangar thanks.

as long as it's set up right, either are great – sram on one bike, shimano on other…

I prefer the shifting action of SRAM – XO triggers and gripshifts – but like the OP have trashed two X9 mechs and one XO one in 12 months and have never ever had a problem with the big S mechs.

I think it could be just bad luck though…

What Langy said, if set up right both work very well.

Shimano tends to wear over time, where as SRAM just fails.

I do reckon XT is a little bit better made but I far prefer how X9 actually works out on the trails. Never had any bother with reliability, I've gone through a few mech hangers but no mechs, they're both getting on a bit now and feel wobbly and baggy in your hands but they shift fine so I'm not bothered. Both are covered in scrapes too.

Only real gyp I have is that the new ones often seem to have issues shifting into the highest gear on the cassette, the spring seems slightly too weak so sometimes they don't reach the end stop. Leaving the bike in that gear overnight sorts it but it's a bit of a fail. Trivial though.

Cant comment on the life of X9 but I find it is far nicer to use than shimano XT or SLX. Running X9 on one bike and SLX on the other.

Always had Shimano but wanted to use matchmakers so made the swap and have no complaints so far.

XT on one bike XO on another.
Previously XTR on one and X9 on the other.

To be frank I can't tell the difference really. Basically XO and XTR are a rip off, so just stick with XT or X9, both are good when set up right.

I thought i had knacked the mech because it would not index or shift properly but it seems the cables had simply filled with Glyncorrwg grit. Quite amazing since I had new cables before I went to afan at weekend.

I've just changed from X9 to XT with a change of bike and so far I've not noticed much difference performance. I quite like the finger/thumb option for shifting with XT and it feels a little more rigid in the build otherwise I've found them equally concise in the shifting.