On my Covert I have a 1X10 setup with an slx clutch mech,a Zee shifter, a oneup expander and a narrow/wide ring.
Shifting is quite stiff ad inconsistent. Worn drivetrain isn’t helping but it never was much good when it was all new either.
Would a new XT shifter make much of a difference? I know it would be better but has anyone found it to sort out shifting problems?

Try a Saint shifter, longer levers and nice internal betterments.

If your derailleur is medium cage, a long cage mech will help a lot.

I recently had a bike with a slx shifter (I believe zee is slx equivalent) and xt rear mech.
The shifting feel was poor at best. It was all set up correctly and working very well it just felt horrible. I have an xt mech and xt shifter on another bike and the shifting feels a lot better.
The difference is the xt shifter has bearings and the slx / zee only have bushings.
Also worth remembering is that clutch mechs are stiffer than non clutch mechs.

Honestly, one of the best tips I ever received from this forum was to try a Saint front shifter on my 1×10 set ups. All set up with clutch mechs and thick/thin front ring.
They’re cheap and really (really) improve shifting.

I’d probably look at cables and routing first (and worn mech second), all shimano stuff tends to work well enough.

Having said that IME the XT shifters always had a nicer crisper action than deore, lx etc, haven’t tried slx or zee to compare tho.

I went from SLX to XT and the difference was very noticable: very light and crisp. I’d guess Zee is somewhere around the Deore/SLX level in terms of internals. It it was me I’d get the Saint though. One of the Germans has them for about £30 a pop (a lesser-used one, hibike, bike24 maybe, I forget).

When I first built the bike with new shifter drivetrain mech and cables it wasn’t briliant, and has now gone terribly downhill, have rerouted the cable as well but no improvement..
So Saint seems to be the way to go, worth the extra 12 quid over XT?

XT from Deore on one of my bikes was like night and day but having said that the drivetrain was fundamentally working anyway. Whereas the Deore was so mushy it was impossible to tell if it had changed gear or not, the XT shifters are just normal Shimano mush it won’t give you a bolt-action shift if that’s what your looking for

Zee and SLX shifters are ok.
XT are better.
Saint is the best of them.
All were used with Zee short and SLX medium cage derailleurs.

Saint shifter and a Oneup rad cage. Rad cage helped a lot with the consistency on my 1×10

Go for Xtr. I recently upgraded my xt shifter to an xtr one and the difference is night and day. not sure how much better it is than a Saint shifter, but tbh for the minimal cost difference I’d say it’s well worth the extra.

Do you have new cables? If not, so those first as almost always the cables where stiff shifting occurs.

Try it with the clutch on or off.. If it’s hugely different then the clutch can be cleaned and adjusted.

Also, pull the end caps off the sleeves. If there’s loads of wire sticking out the sleeves then take the cable out and trim them off. If you’re going to use the same cable again, then give it a pull through an oily rag. Loads of black gunk should come off. I’d blame the shifters last in this case.. They’re usually very reliable.

Saint shifter on both bikes…massive improvement especially going up and down with multiple shifts. Really crisp and accurate if set up correctly.

Try evans and sign up to their newsletters for £5 off…making it £35

Cheers all, brand new cables ad drivetrain still didn’t produce great shifting so will be looking for a Saint shifter I think!

I recently upgraded my xt shifter to an xtr one and the difference is night and day.

pretty sure that’s called new cables*. Xt and xtr are pretty similar.

*or hyperbole

My XTR shifters are one reason why I’m still 9-spd, they just work irrelevant of how crap everything else gets.

i use a deore shifter on my 1 by 10 and it’s great

I’d love to know what magic it is that more expensive shifters can do to improve shifting, given that all any shifters do is move the cable to a series of predefined positions. More expensive shifters often have a nicer feel to them, but I’ve never noticed them being any better at moving the cable to the right place.

More expensive shifters often have a nicer feel to them, but I’ve never noticed them being any better at moving the cable to the right place.

+1 nicer feel and “snappier” shifts, generally with less over/undershift so you get into the right gear quicker while cheapo shimano units do it in a slightly clunkier fashion. But then I guess feel and ease of use can have a significant impact on accurate shifting.

You’re absolutely right and everyone appears to agree with you seeing as they’ve pretty much only mentioned that the feel is better. Things like the Saint and higher up shifters can have some proper differences though, like being able to drop multiple gears at once and the Saint having longer levers for less force, etc. In the end they still just pull cable though.

pretty sure that’s called new cables*. Xt and xtr are pretty similar.

*or hyperbole

Pretty sure with 4 years experience of several 10spd xt shifters I know how they feel with new cables… 🙄 Have you even tried both? I’ve just put xtr shifters on both bikes and they feel way better than the Xt’s ever did, much snappier shifting, better lever feel and smoother too. Same mechs as used with the old xt shifters as well. Normally I would agree with you, my new xtr brakes feel identical to my xt’s on my second bike and the cassettes feel pretty damn similar too, but the shifters are just another level up, they’re actually that good and several others I know have gone to xtr shifters and agreed with me.

Better tolerancing, less slop in movements etc, parts that wear more slowly can give better shifting- could hardly fail to in fact.

Another vote for Saint btw, Shimano build quality and stolen SRAM bolt-action feel, best shifter I’ve ever used. Not even expensive. I wouldn’t let the traditional Shimano feedback-less broken-feeling flappy shite within a mile of my bikes but these are ace.

I found a long cage xtr with clutch gave me a shite shift….

Changed to a medium xt with clutch and the rad cage and now alls super creamy in the shifting department.

RAD cage is the solution

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/oneup-components-rad-cage-review-2014.html

I recently bought an XT shifter to replace a broken SLX one. I reckon it’s a decent upgrade; much crisper feel and the build quality is better. A few quid well spent imo.