[Closed] YOU DONT NEED THE MOST EXPENSIVE GEAR!

Lesson: DON'T BELIVE THE HYPE.

Absolutely - buy online

X7 sucks compare to x0 !

DON'T BELIVE THE HYPE

Woooohhhhhaaaaaa!!!!

YOU DON'T NEED TO SHOUT EITHER!
I'VE X.0 AND AM A BETTER RIDER THAN YOU, I HAVE MORE FUN THAN YOU AND ATTRACTRIVE WOMEN STOP ME IN THE STREET TO GET MY PHONE NUMBER, OK?

All the shifters are the bloody same in the sram line up there quite cheap in construction . While i do love there rear mech's i must say i have really gone off there shifters.

I do agree but isn't nice to buy expensive top quality things and know you've got the best of the best.
Not just bike gear but everything in life... 😀 😀

hello my name's jimmy and I prefer SLX shifters to XT, especially when they do [url= http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/reasons-why-i-love-shimano-1 ]this[/url]

Oh god that feels good.

You're probably right.

OK, everyone back to the Blur TRc thread.

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/bike-stuff-prints-and-marmite-jersey-sram

look and you find a bargain don rush in.

Always had XT back mechs on my bikes. Christ knows how many I've smashed on rocks over the years. A lot. The LBS had none in stock on the last mech/rock interface so I put I deore on as it was all they had in. Difference? Erm... None that I can tell. Anyone who buys XTR or X0 back mechs needs their bumps feeling! Or they're riding like gayers!

I'm the opposite, I changed from X5to X9 and there was a massive difference, for the better. YMMV

I wasn't going to have a rant, but * it! Everyone I see, invariably at trail centres, with full carbon, XTR kitted out ego chariots look like they spend more time cleaning their 'steeds' than actually riding them.

When I see 5 grands worth of (immaculate mud free) bike propped against an Audi I always think 'when are you going to take up wake boarding or kite surfing? Or just * off and stop the rest of us looking like ****s just by being associated with you?

ok, this is balls. I currently have 3 bikes with 3 SRAM shifters setup, X7, X9 and X0, with SRAM X7, X9 and X0.. and if I walk into the garage and try all 3, or ride them and try all 3... the X9 and X0 are close, but each shift incrementally better than the latter. The X0's have lasted 3 years without issue.

Stop being paranoid, the higher ones cost more as they shift better / have better bits / costs more to produce.. Not all companies are out to get ya.

I sort of get your point binners, but my £4k carbon 6" bike is spotless at the moment - would you stereotype me if you saw it leant up against my 4x4?

Edit:just pha !

I've got a carbon blur TRc and a Carbon Nomad and I ride 100+ miles per [s]month[/s]week at an average of 20km/hr

I think you definitely get diminishing returns when you make the jump to XTR/XO, but if you have the cash, then why not?

Personally I'm in the XT bracket

I'm not being cynical. Honest! I just see these bell ends riding stupidly expensive kit and know they're Riding it because its a stupidly bling! I've ridden with god knows how many people off here. It's no coincidence that the people who know what they're doing are normally riding something that looks like it's had a bad paper round.

My intense looks battered! Because it is. But I ****ing love it! 😀

But don't these 'bell-ends' by buying the expensive stuff, force the pace of the R+D component/bike companies to constantly innovate and bring new stuff out. That should then permeate down through the ranges to the benefit of all. Also, when they get bored of it you can pick up bargins as they cast off their bling?

Not at all battered - been to Fort Bill red & black, plus Peaks abuse...

[img] &res=medium[/img]

People on this forum really are a bunch of smug tools sometimes 🙄

Feel the love... it's just a pointless but nevertheless endearing pastime involving riding around in circles 😀

let those that can afford to buy the expesnive stuff. It aids the development and filter down of better kit.

Tbh though alot the the expensive kit is better,,

My Halfords bike came with an X0 rear mech. Didn't know it was anything special 'til me mate pointed it out 🙂 Works as it should....

I'm a bell end. This much I already knew.

STR I think you're a bell end if that helps?

If i had the money, I'd buy the top end kit, and probably a nice Audi! 😉

Dude if you rode an xx set up the difference is like night and day to x4. Less so with the shimano stuff, but there is a difference with xtr and SLX. Shimano do seem to trickle down tech quicker than SRAM.

I'm lucky enough to have some "top end" kit mainly as this is my hobby and if all the bills are payed and the kids are happy then why not save a bit up for something I'd like over the course of a year or years I Don't give an Arse what any one thinks! As for me the kit and tech is part of it.

On the same note I have it handed to me on cheaper bikes than mine and more expensive bikes this sitting on the fence of riding crapness/ handing it to people allows me the moral high ground in the forum discussion.

Wookster confirmed non Audi driving nob since 2001. 😆

Slx shifters on one bike, xt on the other. Bought the slx ones as couldn't stretch to xt at the time. They work, but they don't shift as well or feel quite as nice

binners, you had the argument right up until you said

My intense looks battered! Because it is. But I **** love it!

I'm affraid you're all wrong....the correct answer is don't buy shifters at all and glory in the manly thighs of singlespeedyness. You can spend all the extra money on beer and cake rather than bits of xtr or SPAM shifty things.

Years ago I went for the absolute best and bling bits. But got a family now and understand my performance levels and rate myself as a rider at Deore spec! At a push SLX. It does the job and is of decent enough quality and that is my decision.

I certainly won't decry anyone else's XX or XTR fetish pleasures. I do however dislike immaculate bikes. I like battle scars, dinks, scrapes and the kind of in grained mud that says you cleaned the worst off but wanted to go riding again so didn't fanny about with a toothbrush.

Next on Mr T's shopping list of constantly replacing worn out parts is a set of SLX double and bash cranks as I can't see anything better on the market for what I need.

My first year on XTR, always a confirmed XT man - why pay the extra? Well it certainly lasts longer not changed anything all year except chains. By now I would have eaten through 2 or 3 sets of rings and cassettes. All working fine and I think it will still be going strong well in to the winter. In terms of shifting its smoother and it lasts longer. Guess it depends on your mileage. If you dont do much then XT will be fine. High mileage XTR.

I believe an independent adjudicator should rate every riders abilities and issue them with a rating. This rating (1 for a crap rider - 10 for a riding god) can then be used to determine just how up the bling ladder they are allowed to climb. That'll put an end to the nobbers riding about on pristine £5k bikes.

[i]edit: some sort of hybrid rolly-eyed, winky, half smiling yellow circle thing.[/i]

p.s. TROLL!

Perhaps average riders with expensive bikes should pay a special tax, or be made to wear a special badge?

Personally, I like to pay my pennance by giving inverted bike snob locals something to laugh at when I fail to clear another easy section on my soda.

Everybody classes themselves as an average rider though, so that wont work.

I've used XX for two years, its toss, don't bother. It'll be XT for me from now on.

Well it certainly lasts longer not changed anything all year except chains. By now I would have eaten through 2 or 3 sets of rings and cassettes

what sort of mileage are you doing to get that rate of wear..?

I'm not riding more than once per week at the moment.. but even when I was regularly doing 100+ offroad miles per week I wasn't getting through anywhere near that much gear...

aye my thoughts as well or do you ride everywhere in the granny ring 😉
I thin k with more expensive kit you hope to get longevity out the box it works well but how long it lasts maintenance free is the great unknown.

I find I buy parts on the 'how easily am I going to break it' basis. Seeing as I ride with the grace and elegance of a 3 legged hippo on a skateboard, this is a major issue. All XTR, carbon bling is out, on the basis that it won't last 5 minutes. This has inevitably led to various 'downhill' spec parts appearing on my bike (mainly bottom bracket/cranks) as they tend to be in with a fighting chance of coping with the clumsy, over-enthusiastic ineptitude they're inevitably delivered into

I'm off out to break stuff in a bit. We should do a straw poll later to see how much today's ride's cost you? I've not catastrophically wrecked something for a few weeks.. Have a good days riding y'all 😀

Buy the no bullshit deore! lasts longer! So what if it takes a hundreth of a second longer to change! Once its in gear it aint going nowhere! 8)

You just come across as a jealous cock Binners! You're able to call people bell ends because they have a clean, nice bike!?

My bike is expensive, and spotless, but I'll wager it gets ridden more than yours! I like to maintain it, so it stays working better, why have something nice and trash it?

My bike is expensive, and spotless, but I'll wager it gets ridden more than yours! I like to maintain it, so it stays working better, why have something nice and trash it?

As Njee says, every sponsored xc racer I've been behind in race has been on a spotless bike in fact their drive chains dazzle, as for Binners, he's Hora's best friend.

Enough said.

I'm really not jealous. Though i am a cock! My bike was hardly cheap, so I can hardly have a pop on that score. I just find spotless bike's incomprehensible. It's inherently contradictory. I know I'll come back later and my bike will be absolutely coated in crap! Covered! I'm riding on boggy moors and it's put some serious rain down. I'll be going out tomorrow to do it again so there's precious little point in cleaning it. It'll get a cursory hose down. Mainly because I want to get to the pub to watch the united game 🙂

If your bikes spotless, you must have an awful lot of time on your hands. Life's too short I'm afraid

I am probably below the STW average in terms of ability. Above the average in terms of age. I like to ride my bike and keep it clean but I don't wash it after every ride. My bike may be above average in terms of cost but leans against an 18 year old VW Golf worth about a grand.
What does that make me?
I would say it makes me some one that enjoys their hobby to the best of their abilities. It also makes me some one who puts as much cash and time into it as they feel appropriate. But most importantly, it makes me happy.

1 bike has X.0
Another has XT
The third came from the parts bin and Decathlon.
Am I a bell end?

STR - No matter how much you spend on it, it's still a Specialized

😛

If your bikes spotless, you must have an awful lot of time on your hands. Life's too short I'm afraid

Not really, but I don't waste my time watching a bunch of overpaid primadonnas run around for 90 minutes. That's plenty of time to clean a bike! Life's too short to fancy a bunch of 'men' who don't even know who you are, I'll stick to riding my bike, that's more healthy!

What are these "rear mechs" of which you speak ?

People on this forum really are a bunch of smug tools sometimes

Oh, and...

[img] [/img]

cynic-al - Member

STR I think you're a bell end if that helps?

Ha, not really, but made me chuckle. Love you too al

Bike will be filthy later and stay that way until I can be arsed to get it out of the shed again

[img] &res=medium[/img]

Still the same bike binners

Houns - mebbe so, they make good bikes 😉

Personally I resent you low life pond feeders who take advantage if those of us who stump up for top end kit. While we have the decency to pay proper money for leading edge new technology, it makes me mad to think tthat, in just a few years time, that technology will have filtered down to the "plebs" groupsets just so the masses can get their dirty little hands on stuff that works almost as well... AND I bet you wont even keep it spotless will you!!!?

SRAM shifters are all shite though, that's why.

performance, has been said already is just a longevity thing for most. And me.

I never see any one riding 5k bikes where I live to be honest & I've never been to a 'trail centre'... I have been riding off road since mid 90's though.

I expect that all types of people buy bikes, simple as...

Meticulous bike washing = extra time out from the wife 😉

Erm, what about weight? I know if you're plodding round trail centres you could argue that it makes no difference, but I'm sure someone racing XC (or even 24s) would rather their bikes weighs the least it can. Thus an XTR groupset would be preferable to a Deore one. Yes, lots of people should lose the gut first etc, but after that?

Erm, what about weight?

No, you should know that the answer in such circumstances is always 'have a dump', it's forbidden by the leaders to spend money on a light bike unless you have less 2% body fat and even then it's not worth it 🙄

To get back to the original post...

There is a lot of crap talked about minute differences in performance from one level of kit to the next. I doubt it really makes much odds but if it floats your boat then go for it. There are worse vices.

The thing that irks me is the notion that you can't do certain things with certain kit. If you're good enough then your kit is good enough.

Far too many people certainly think bikes aren't as capable as they really are. Can I ride a trail centre on a 4" race bike etc. The bigger issue with the OP, which we have picked up on, is the insinuation that X7 is expensive! 😉

If your bikes spotless, you must have an awful lot of time on your hands. Life's too short I'm afraid

No that's not allowed, to fit in you have to have a mid-range bike and never look after it. Taking care of your property is unacceptable and a sign of too much time, or someone who never rides. 🙄

The OP does have a massive point, a lot of folk are going to be forced to downgrade as the cost of components inexorably climbs.

Good for them I say.

Thankfully, SLX today is as good as XT was just a couple of years back.

Bike business based around WANT and not NEED shocker.

🙄

Next up - "designer clothes do not make ugly people attractive", and

"Not everyone is the same" revelations.

uuuuuurgh. Rode a mates bike with X4 the other day. the shifters flex more than than a flexible friend. Felt dirty riding it. SLX all the way for me if im on one of my pansy bikes with gears.

A few years ago, when I worked in a bike shop, I bought some XTR stuff cos I got a big discount on it. M952 rear mech and shifters. I still have them, and the shifters in particular have outlasted XT and Deore ones on other bikes. Actually, the XT ones were a bit crap imo and not as good as Deore!

I dunno. I think the M950 stuff lasted really well, not so sure about more recent revisions. I think when these shifters do eventually die, I'd replace them with XTR again, cos I'd assume the XTR stuff is stronger and more robust than the cheaper bits. Deore and XT mechs don't last as long as my XTR mech.

So for me it's about buying stuff that does the job and lasts, and if it means XTR is actually 'better', then I'll cough up for that. If, like Binners, I coon't actually ride my bike propply and fell off all the time bashing stuff, then I'd probbly just buy Tourney. As regular replacement of anything more spensive would be an utter waste of money.

Front mechs though; I still have the original LX one what came with the bike and is now 10 years old. 🙂 If it ain't broke, don't upgrade...

A lot of current stuff is nowhere near as well made as equivalent stuff ten years ago or more though, that's for sure. It's meant to wear out quicker so you upgrade more often and the component manufacturers continue making money out of you...

To those that say they don't have time to clean their bikes; if you have time to fill your fat little faces with a bacon butty and cake at a trail center try using the time to clean your bike instead, you'll be thinner and you will not end posting on here about how all kit is rubbish and doesn't last very long

we dont all ride trail centrees and if you think at 10:45 on a cold winter's night that I am going to spend the next 15 minutes cleaning my bike then you are very much mistaken.
I do clean them I just dont do it every ride

To those that say they don't have time to clean their bikes; if you have time to fill your fat little faces with a bacon butty and cake at a trail center try using the time to clean your bike instead, you'll be thinner and you will not end posting on here about how all kit is rubbish and doesn't last very long

😆

Love it Tazzy, love it.

I've just cleaned mine, now I've got to decide whether it's worth taking my X.0 shod carbon bling-machine to Landegla to see how close to the hour I can get on the black, that is if I don't get held up by lardy, I mean both bike and rider, weekend warriors on their crappy cheap and dirty behemoths.

XT throughout. Harder wearing than XTR. Brakesets on their second bike since 2001. Virtually no maintenance and still going strong.

"Trickling down" some "bling" even as we speak, due to an upgrade to something extremely current, wildly expensive and bling-a-dee-bling-ey...

LMAO at some of these posts.

I ride XT, always have. I trust it as it works for me the way I like. Saying that I honestly recommend SLX to anyone looking to replace parts as it looks pretty damn good value for money.

And I clean my bike after pretty much every ride. Not because I have too much time on my hands (I have two crazy young children) or I necessarily want a shiny bike but because I ride mainly up Woburn and other areas that are full of sand. And that stuff can soon start to cause issues and wear stuff out if it stays on a bike too long.

Cleaning my bike regularly might be the reason I have just replaced my cassette and chain for the first time in 8 years. There is method to the cleaning madness. 🙂

ho mr woppit looking at your bling cast offs as we speak

XT throughout. Harder wearing than XTR

Hmmm. Based upon scientific tests of the hardness and durability of the materials involved I presume? 😉

Extra photos on the way, konadad, just waiting for photobucket to load... 😀

i have a well riden dirty expensive bike.....

Cleaning my bike regularly might be the reason I have just replaced my cassette and chain for the first time in 8 years. There is method to the cleaning madness

yea but you can only get a few thousand if that out of any chain, ride more clean less

Eh?....i've had chains last years both on mountain bikes and motor bikes, all depends on how they're looked after.

Never let it get rusty and cover it with lube/WD40/ACF50/GT85/grease etc and you wont go far wrong.

... And never ride it just to ensure no chain stretch...

Chains don't stretch.