Are XT cranks worth the extra cost over SLX?

New cranks time. Are XT cranks worth the extra over SLX?
Any thing other than shimano worth looking at?

Define “worth”

Ive had both there are no practical differences as far as I can tell other than the steel pedal insets on the SLX’s. Which ones do you think are more you?

No, but XTR ones are 🙂

I always say if you can afford to buy the XT, buy it. You’ll buy SLX, which is also great but you’ll be going I should have brought the XT.

I run black 2 x 10 XT on my full sus bike

I also run 2 x 10 SLX on my hard tail

I much prefer the SLX as none of the coating has worn of after 4 months of hard winter use – which is much more than i can say for the XT cranks…. 🙁

Very disappointed really

SLX are great and work really well. If you get the ones with the steel pedal inserts they´re a bonus too if you´ve ever stripped a pedal thread.

The price difference is purely in the badge – as boltonjon points out above (He’s unhappy as his badge has worn off – tee hee)

Hypocrite Warning! – I run XT 🙂

I have SLX with the steel pedal inserts – can’t really see why you’d want anything better unless you are racing/competing…

tbh there is not much difference of any of them over Deore….but I much prefer the look of XT so that’s what I have.

As for rubbing off the finish – I’m not a heal rubber. But I do stick a bit of PU tape on my cranks anyway just in case.

i ‘had’ to buy xt cranks for my girlfriend, they were the only cranks i could find with 165mm arms (she’s tiny).

but it’s deore all the way for me from now on.

I always say if you can afford to buy the XT, buy it. You’ll buy SLX, which is also great but you’ll be going I should have brought the XT.

So do you reckon you could tell the difference if the cranks were wrapped in sticky tape so you couldn’t see the finish or the badges? I’m the ultimate hypocrite here as I have XTR, DA and Record equipped bikes (I have an Ultegra chainset on my winter hack which I bought for it when it was already a designated and abused winter hack – though it was better than half price in a sale).

It is odd that SLX stands up to wear better than other Shimanos isn’t it? I had a set of 9-speed SLX and watching the logos fall off my XTRs while the SLXs never showed a scratch was just weird.

The difference between the 2’s pretty trivial and quite a bit of the weight difference is in the chainrings anyway. Unless you’ve got a princess’s feet and can feel a pea through a dozen pedals, you’ll not know the difference between Deore and XTR while riding IMO.

Middleburn…

The older LX cranks have the best wearing arms in my book, but to the OP nope not worth paying out for XT over SLX in the cranks dept.

I can highly rate SLX. Had a set on one of my bikes for 2 years and they still look fresh due to limited superficial wear from shoe rub.

Merlin currently have a very good deal on the 10 speed triple which I am informed works nicely with a 9 speed setup. Mine should have arrived in the post today!

I belive the weight difference is barely 30-40g. So little in it considering the cost difference.

I have to say the new SLX looks a bit cheap with the silver spider. Older ones much nicer in that respect but the new arms are nicer.

My 3 bikes run equipment from alivio up to xt. I can’t tell the difference between any of it.
Apart from xt shifters which are clicking marvellous.

I Have Deore/SLX/XT on my bikes. I can’t tell any difference, other than looks. I am a bit crap though. XT look the best.

I have deore on the HT and XT on the FS and I don’t think I could tell the difference in a blind testing! If I could see ’em the decal has worn off the deore but not the XT. The BB on the deore did wear out very quickly though and was replaced with a cheapXTR from Rose and has been no bother since [over a year]

The weight difference is almost all in the rings. The bare arms are within 10g of each other.

Got SLX m675 on the hardtail and XT m780 on the fs. SLX were a steal with the exchange rate when they first came out and look better than the XT IMO.

The old SLX m666 never had a mark either after a year on my Crush.

I’ve got SLX on my mtb, have covered a fair few miles and it’s taken loads of bunnyhops and jumps with my heft without a problem – still on original bearings.

HOWEVER! The new SLX appears to be pretty ugly, so get the old SLX.