Building up my old bike and inititally was going to go XT but money's tight so thinking of Deore throughout – will I notice much difference?

Probably not just the small weight savings

best price on a groupset?
is it merlin?

just the price diffence.

I like the SLX though if you can stretch to it

I like the SLX though if you can stretch to it

Yeah I was thinking about going slx rather than dropping right down but know a mechanic who swears that there's little difference between all 3 except weight

having used deore and XT shifters the XT are much nicer, better finished, alu lever etc.

If money is tight and you are doing the whole groupset consider mixing and matching across the ranges.

A front mech is a front mech so go cheap. Chainsets again there isn't a huge benefit except weight to go up the range, so could save some money, but the shifters do take some stick so i would get better shifters and rear mechs.

SLX. The cassette isn't far off XT weights, at under 300g for 32T. The cranks are within sixty odd grammes, but I prefer the aesthetics of SLX and more importantly seventy sniffs off the price.

Hmm, got XT on my 'best bike' and an SLX/Deore mix on my 2nd bike and to be honest can't tell much diference! In fact I was wishing I had stuck to deore throughout for no.2 and saved some cash.

thinking about ordering off merlin in the morning – anyone used them b4?

i got the deore gear set from merlin, bargasin at £50 for the rear shadow mech, front mech and shifters/cables.

Great looking kit and does the job really well.

Merlin are brilliant, no criticism here.

Merlin have always been spot on for me, and so cheap.

Go with the deore it's good stuff.

I've got deore ahifters and have gotten rid of deore mechs for xtr and xt. About to upgrade my shifter but to be honest they have been very reliable. They look a little cheap but are built well and haven't failed yet.

http://www.merlincycles.co.uk/mountain-bike-gear-levers-shimano-and-sram-gear-levers/shimano-deore-shadow-gear-kit.html

I thought that this year's Deore chainset no longer had Hollowtech II cranks (still HT2 BB). I would guess that means that they're heavier and/or flexier than the SLX, XT, or last year's Deore LX.

I think it has also been claimed that Deore HT2 BB's are not as well sealed as the XT ones. Don't know if that's true though.

EDIT: could get some used XT cranks on the classifieds?

Merlin are excellent. Ribble have slightly better prices on individual bits at the moment though, depends what you need.

was going to go for :

http://www.merlincycles.co.uk/?fn=product&productId=2171&categoryId=83

and sell on the brakes and front mech (need the other type!)

It's a heck of a deal. Might just be worth ringing Merlin to see what the best deal they'll do you on just the bits you're after, to save you the hassle of selling on. Wouldn't surprise me if you get a good enough price to do it that way.

I'd go for SLX shifters at least, if you can stretch to them.

The Deore ones are good, but do feel a bit plasticy compared to SLX or XT.

+1 for Merlin. Give them a ring and see if they will do something on a complete package