Just gone 1×9. New casette, chain and thick thin chain wheel. Noticed the jockey wheels on my rear mech very rounded just wondering what the benefit of changing them is? The mech is xtr so about 30quid for a new set. Could just get some Deore but why bother?

Anyone thinking of going 1x – do it, you won’t regret it. I can still get up the steep stuff but faster…

Your shifting will improve. If they look like a cowbys spurs the chances are the bearings are shot too and it won’t be long before they disintegrate and jam up.

Mine are really badly worn one one bike and new on another. Both xtr clutch mechs with the original jockey wheels. The wear hasn’t affected the shifting so I haven’t bothered changing them.
The Bearings are still nice and smooth. I’ll prob get some more hope ones when I do decide to change.

If they look like a cowbys spurs the chances are the bearings are shot too and it won’t be long before they disintegrate and jam up

Mine looked like cowboy spurs, then disintegrated and jammed up, so I pushed my bike a mile home and then replaced them. Frankly the new ones didn’t make any difference to shifting.

Any advantage really to buying CNC aluminium ones as opposed to plastic ones or genuine shimano ones?

I had a pair of CNC ones one time that the bolt wouldn’t go through, despite being supposedly the right ones, since have been somewhat shy of eBay ones. Just a tolerance / manuf issue? Or did I miss something?

The CNC ones last longer, though some argue they may wear the chain out. Never had that problem myself.

I’d personally go with ceramic bearing KCNC. Ceramic to keep the bearings running longer. I’ve had loads of factory plastic jockeys die and the bearings seized up, but not one KCNC has seized at all. That said I have had one where the teeth finally wore away but took a very long time.

Other bonus of the KCNC is they have good vented holes that sheds mud. SRAM jockeys I find attract mud and are a nightmare to clean.

Only thing with the KCNC is they don’t have the floating thingy in one jockey that SRAM does, but as far as I can tell that makes crap all difference.

I thought the same thing, however my chain recently came sideways off the jockey wheel, snapped the mech off and badly bent it. In future I will be replacing them more regularly… Decathlon sell Tac-x ones for less than £10 I think, just need to make sure you get the correct number of teeth (11 for shimano?)

No point in ceramic bearings, hope pulleys with steel bearings are fine and last “for ever” with a bit of maintenance like every thing else on a bike. Take a part, clean, regrease, put together it’s 10 min job.
Or just buy plastics and replace twice a year.

I had KCNC jockey wheel seize in the middle of an event which rather cramped my already limited style. Since then I have just used cheap generic ones which are cheap enough to always have one in my pack.

Normally wouldn’t need the ceramic, but the reviews for KCNC say go for ceramic as the steel bearings don’t last. The ceramic ones last forever and don’t need regreasing. Even the one that the teeth broke on, I’m going to remove the bearings and keep or sell as they’re still good.

Oh, and ceramic KCNC is still cheaper than a genuine sram replacement for an X0/X9 mech! (which are rubbish and only last 6 months max).