Just decided to add a clutchy mech to the hemlock as I’m running out of 9-speed bits, and went to bike-discount… They’re not cheap any more! £62.50 plus p&p. My german gods, why hast thou forsaken me!

£60 from chain reaction seems to be the best online price, just wondered if anyone knows of a better source? (they’re out of stock just now but due in soon)

Probikeshop have been good recently but their the XT one is 72 euro. Just get an SLX one?

I think the £ has taken a dive against the euro. The bike I was eying has gone up by 240!

I’ve noticed this, CRC seem to be as cheap for most bits now, and the cheapest for the mech your looking at.

Euro strengthened to 1.15 to the pound yesterday. Boss is fatalistic about it and hoping things improve before we pay bills to the European suppliers!

Just bought one from CRC, sort of only cost me £50 by using the £75 voucher and spending £17 on pedals that i needed anyway. Well that’s how I justified it to myself!

PS bit disappointed that the clutchy lever bit is plastic. Think I will be getting a zee for my other bike as the same lever looks metal.

PS bit disappointed that the clutchy lever bit is plastic. Think I will be getting a zee for my other bike as the same lever looks metal.

Not only is the lever metal, it is gold anodised. It’s a nice mech, no real advantage to XT other than weight. Make sure you get the correct ratio one for your cassette. The 32/36 version seems to be out of stock in a lot of places.

Thanks for that, sold me on the Zee. Went for the XT on my trail bike as it would allow me to run 2×10 in the future if I felt like changing. Waiting for the Zee to come back in stock on CRC now.

Sending you an email.

Get your zee from probikeshop, got mine last week, seems to be the only place with good prices and in stock.

http://www.probikeshop.com/shimano-zee-shadow-32-36-rd-m640-ss-10-speed-rear-derailleur-short-cage/80196.html

Got my XT one from Tweeks (it was a few months back).

The Zee lever is plastic too, gold plastic, but still plastic.

The Zee lever is plastic too, gold plastic, but still plastic.

Hmmm…looks and feels like metal to me, also a couple of mag reviews have commented on the ‘metal’ lever.

The one in front of me right now is very definitely plastic. I’d assume it’s from an early batch (preordered it so I had it as soon as they were available) so they might have changed since.

German sites look good again. CRC have just put up the price of the XT mech to £75! Cassettes and Zee mech gone up £10 as well.

The Bikechain have sorted me out, cheers chaps! I dedicate this X9-XT-9-10-speed fiasco to you.

having just seen the difference between the SRAM & Shimano one I’m laughing a little. The SRAM has a button to hold the mech back when you pop the wheel out. It pops back when you push mech back or bounce bike. Very clever simple solution.