Hi,
I've smashed the X9 rear mech on my downhill bike.it's a similar price for a zee trigger and meck and rear meck to a replacement X9.
All my other bikes are on shimano but ones on 8 speed and ones on 9.
What would you do? I'm in no huge Hury to get it fixed so overseas orders are fine
Zee mech and a 5mm stack of washers under the cable will work with a SRAM shifter for 9 speed AND you get a clutch to stop the chain flapping.
Clutch mechs on Dh bikes aren't great.
If the cage on your x9 isn't mullered any chance of donating it?
I was looking at this recently too. I worked out it was pretty cheap to go for a zee shifter, a 105 mech, tiagra 10sp cassette and chain. I think all these were from CRC too.
its probably more expensive in the short term but 105 mechs are about £22-25 so could be better in the long run if you do more mech damage.
I would be loathed to put any top price mech on my dh bike as they so get a beating.
wysiwyg - Member
Clutch mechs on Dh bikes aren't great.
Why not?
I'd not change to zee, they don't last and are very prone to breaking
zee shifter, a 105 mech
Unfortunately they won't work together- road 10 speed will work with mtb 9 speed but not mtb 10 speed due to them having different pull ratios.
As for the OP, if you run Sram then it's ALWAYS time to change to Shimano. Shimano mechs are much tougher in my experience and if, as wysiwyg suggests, clutch mechs don't work on a DH bike (though I can't see why, if a clutch affects your suspension then your suspension is probably rubbish- maybe he's been sipping the Mojo/Chris Porter kool aid?) then you can turn it off and it'll still work as a mech, unlike Sram.
I've had a Zee for 3 and a half years before it imploded. Bought another to replace it, lasts much longer than XT for me.
Clutch mechs work as well on dh bikes as anything else imo. (before someone says "but Neko..." "But Gwin", funnily enough they both went back to clutch mechs after their chainless runs)
What I'd do, is I'd get a Saint- £75 now so almost twice as much as Zee but I'd expect it to last more than twice as long. Zee ime is fine while it lasts but really not that tough. And I'd make a wee adaptor to use it with your existing shifter. Costs about the same, works very similiarly, saves having to change the cassette etc and gets you a much more durable mech.
Wysiwyg I would have kept it for bits but everything was bent or properly knackered :-(. It got hit by a rock that was thrown up at about 30mph on a fast fire road in Whistler.
I doubt anything would have survived. The mech hanger was pushed into the cassette enough to stop the wheel moving.
So no Saint 😉
It's £40 for a zee mech and shifter from Germany so I think I'll go for that instead of shims.
Thanks for the advice 🙂
Let me rephrase. Clutch mechs on suspension bikes aren't great. Let's spend loads of $ on a finely tuned rear shock. And then let's add something that pulls against it.
I'm just bitter cos my demo eats a cable a week and a top jockey wheel in a month.