Specifically I’d be interested in the Zee shadow plus when it’s available, but I guess it’s a fair question if I need to replace any of my mechs, Sram included. Should I hold onto my jockey bolts and stock up on new 9sp jockey wheels?

Simple answer is no, unfortunately. They use different pull ratios so wont work unless you have the matching shifter i.e. 10sp with 10sp.

Dont know about the jockey wheels, personally i cant see it making a huge amount of difference. But i think you maybe over thinking this, as you can still get spares for any other speed ever invented. Their not killing off 9 speed all together with regards to spares. Just not making any new equipment using it

with a x9 SRAM 9 sp shifter?
have a look here if you are still thinking of doing this

http://www.pinkbike.com/photo/9128725/

Aye, done this myself, and working very well- retains the feel of SRAM 9-speed and lets me keep using my old cassettes, with the benefit of Shimano’s better mechs. Win!

Not sure if it’ll work equally on all mechs though, I’ve tried it on XTR and XT and SLX should be the same, but Zee seems to have different geometry- I’d like to get one to mess with.

My mind has just exploded. That. Is. Amazing. How did i not know this sooner! <runs off to CRC>

It’s more amazing to just go and buy matching Shimano components. Shimano bodged to work with the small S is the pits!

martinxyz – Member

Shimano bodged to work with the small S is the pits!

Your personal experience of this being?

Currently running a super sweet running Campagnolo/Shimano combo on the commuter. It works like it was designed as such, this will be the same and a damn sight cheaper than going full bore into 10speed.

I like this a lot. Just got to keep my eyes open for a cheap shadow plus now. on the plus side my 9sp x9 mech will remain a useful spare.

Merlin seem cheapest for Shadow+, tho Germany is even cheaper if you are buying a lot of other stuff at same time.

Northwind – Member
martinxyz – Member
Shimano bodged to work with the small S is the pits!

Your personal experience of this being?

None at all and I hope I never see the day someone bodges Shimano to work with the small S.. because I personally see it as the pits!

With how well Shimano units work compared to how often Sram shifters have niggles in their shifting, It makes me cringe to think that folk will go wangling stuff to get that lego-build components working with Shimano when there’s perfectly good combo’s designed to work together.

Just getting a bit fed up with not only cheap rear mechs binding at their linkages from new.. but also high end stuff. New or old, it can happen at any age. I won’t even go into the alignment of the rear mechs from new. Some aren’t a problem, but many are.

The shifters, mostly the left hand units can spit the dummy occasionally from new too. Both cheap units and high end. Shimano have never done this to me whilst working with it over the past 18 odd years. This is my reason for having no praise for their shifters and rear mechs amongst a few other parts.

Working with the stuff over the past 18 odd years (sram, maybe 12)as your job,not just on my own bike at the weekends, you start to get a feel for your favourite after a point.

That’s my personal experience and reason to ‘spout’ :O)

So, nothing that qualifies you to comment at all, you just personally dislike SRAM, which we all know is down to personal preference. Works for plenty of the best riders in the world after all.

Works for plenty of the best riders in the world after all.

What, the ones who get paid to use what they are told to?

Not sure if it’ll work equally on all mechs though, I’ve tried it on XTR and XT and SLX should be the same, but Zee seems to have different geometry

Zee is just an SLX mech with a shorter cage.

Hob Nob – Member
Works for plenty of the best riders in the world after all.
What, the ones who get paid to use what they are told to?

SRAM working perfectly here on grip shift, happy as anything with it, said it before but the most common upgrade i’m seeing in oz is SRAM over shimano (paid for not sponsored)

😆 Shiteram… (nearly) all the stuff works ok if you dont get a duff one out of the box and your are handy at setting them up.. i want someone to make a decent light gearbox ..so fed up with chains and derailers=lo-tek overpriced fragile poop 😐

Not sure I’d buy new SRAM just now, but the point of this is making what you already have work. So, you use your tried and tested shifters, and the question of whether it works out of the box will never come up. Simples.

martinxyz – Member

None at all

Really all you had to say.

thisisnotaspoon – Member

Zee is just an SLX mech with a shorter cage.

The cable line looks different in the photos I’ve seen, but it might just be angle… I’d want to get one in my hands to be sure

martinxyz – Member
None at all

Really all you had to say.

and very proud to state that on a forum too.

So, nothing that qualifies you to comment at all, you just personally dislike SRAM, which we all know is down to personal preference. Works for plenty of the best riders in the world after all.

Well,you did put ‘plenty’ and not ‘all’

Who was it that went through 18 sram rear mechs in one DH season?

Mike, while sram takes over from Shimano,in your eyes, in Oz. Here in Scotland its definitely the other way around.

Martinxyz – Working with the stuff over the past 18 odd years (sram, maybe 12)as your job,not just on my own bike at the weekends, you start to get a feel for your favourite after a point.

POSTED 1 WEEK AGO #
njee20 – Member
So, nothing that qualifies you to comment at all, you just personally dislike SRAM

No, forget it.

OK, something more from the opposite end of the sliding scale of relevant experience…

Just made up spacer number 2 and fitted an SLX mech to the Soda… as I suspected thinning the block fractionally perfected it. New one is 12mm x 12mm x 6.8mm- not for any scientific reason, just because the 7mm one seemed fractionally too big. Fitted, indexed just like any other rear mech, sorted.

The original one’s sufficiently good that I don’t think I’ll bother modifying it tbh… It’s not perfect but it’s next door.

Oh, and the SLX mech feels very nearly identical to the XT one, off the bike it feels cheaper and a wee bit nasty in all honesty but on the bike it does the job, and even looks pretty nice. Bushings not bearings in the jockey wheels though. Still swithering about getting a Saint and setting it up the same way for the 224, it’ll be the retirement home for slightly shagged out X9s though for now 🙂

(I’d like to compare the XT/X9 setup with an XT/XT setup- haven’t tried that. It’s nicer than XTR IMO and very close to new Saint)

http://bb.nsmb.com/showthread.php?t=153122

This thread validates my theory that 10+ gear systems are a complete waste of time and serve no useful purpose other than to sell us more stuff.

Will work with 7/8/9/10/11 speed……

….with a thumbshifter on friction

Little bit surprised that works, actually- on first glance it looks like he’s changing the cable pull in the wrong direction. But I can’t think with pics, will look at it again with a mech in my hands. Strikes me as inelegant, too 😉

Oh, there’s a comment in the thread that it works with no mods at all- that’s cobblers frankly… Few downhillers did it to get them 3 or 4 working gears but the only people who think it works fully are the people whose gears never work properly. If you set it up as well as is possible, it works about as well as a 9-speed bike with a bent mech hanger or dead cables. You can get a few gears to work well, and the rest to work badly.