Looking at new bikes for the lady wife.
I have always been a Shimano man, so have no experience of SRAM.
Which is “better”?

Deore at sub 700 quid must be pretty hard to beat!

Neither is better. They both work.

X5 If you prefer clunky, one way shifting, deore for smoother rapid fire shifting, both work faultlessly though

only differences i know are rear mech related.

sram – jockey wheels that sieze/disintegrate, rear mech spring thats not strong (possibly now addressed)
shimano – jockey wheels still work after turning into ninja throwing stars

sram ‘feel’ nicer but shimano all the way for shifters/mechs these days for me.

I prefer shimano, I used to use the SRAM rocket/attack shifters which worked with Shimano mechs when they still made them as I preferred SRAM shifters, but since they stopped and since Shimano introduced dual release it’s not an issue.

It’s anecdotal but I trashed 3 SRAM mechs in a couple of months when a new bike came with SRAM. I’ve trashed 1 Shimano mech in 15 years.

I run a full deore groupset on my bike as it works, is easy to set up and is cheap.
X5, especially the shifters doesn’t seem quite as good and is more fiddly to set up. Had X7 on another bike and that was more like Deore in my mind

Deore it is!

My new bike will likely be shimano so having swappable mechs is no bad thing!

I’m surprised by the balance of views presented – Deore is far superior in my mind.

deore is waaay better, much tougher ime

does x5 even have a clutch?

I got slx and xt on my latest sub £800 bike.

X5, especially the shifters doesn’t seem quite as good and is more fiddly to set up. Had X7 on another bike and that was more like Deore in my mind

My last bike came with X5 which I swapped to SLX because I had it spare, in terms of quality/feel there’s nothing in it. I’ve not used deore in a while so maybe it’s as good, but I used to find it wore out after a couple of years. But for either light use where it’ll last indefinitely or for heavier use where it’d OK to buy into it as a system you can upgrade I’d still recommend it.

Both pure evil in a Toyota Aygo/Honda Jazz kind of way

Both pure evil in a Toyota Aygo/Honda Jazz kind of way

That’s just a bizarre statement

ton – Member
I got slx and xt on my latest sub £800 bike.

What did you get Ton?