Beware buying CRC ‘Shimano XTR cable set’. I did and what turned up was a bag of tat that looked like SIS pre-made outers salvaged from something bought from Argos along with 2 Clarks inners (both the same length). Not a Shimano label in sight.
Should have sent it back but needed to get the bike sorted.

Sounds like you either got sent the wrong stuff or someone returned it like that.

XTR should be nice smooth black coated inners (cheaper black inners are not quite as smooth) and the outer might say SP41 if it says anything.

Cheers I nearly bought one of those this week, but thought I was to cheap as the inners are £7 each on there own

The outer coating on the inners looks very thin and the outers all have SIS on them. The sets I’ve seen advertised elsewhere say different length inners for front and rear. The other cable sets I have bought(DuraAce) had clear coating on the inners, not black.
Oh and the outers were all pre-made lengths, not one roll of the stuff.

The outers in the XTR kit do come in cut lengths.

I normally just buy 10m rolls of SP41 and stainless inners.

Do you have a link to the kit, OP?

As I imagine it’ll state it’s a pre-cut kit.

Yes it states pre-cut. I smelt a rat when it turned up in a clear plastic bag with no Shimano branding anywhere and the blatent SIS silver stamping on the outers http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/shimano-xtr-gear-cable-set-ptfe-coated/rp-prod67788

I smelt a rat when it turned up in a clear plastic bag with no Shimano branding 

IT’S OEM! Why do you think things are so cheap from these online shops?

Shimano XTR Gear Cable Set PTFE Coated Features: Complete gear cable set DESIGNED TO SUIT the top-of-the-range XTR gears

Topic closed.

Oh why do insufferable pr***s have to comment on posts aimed at people not so perfect as themselves?

They’ve quite obviously sent out the wrong thing.

The description is very clear that you should be getting shimano kit, sp41 outer and pukka inners. The pics even show the little sealing noodles you get with xtr.

I’d drop them an email and see if they’ll do anything as good will.

Hmm, got a pic of what you received?
That does seem very cheap for XTR cable set, as someone else said the cheapest I could find just the PTFE coated inners was £11 each last year.

As an experiment, I’ve ordered the grey set.
I know what they consist of as I’ve got SP41 and the sealed ferrules plus a PTFE cable already at home, so I can easily compare.
If its not right I’ll get it sent back.
I’ll report back when I receive it.

Shimano XTR Gear Cable Set PTFE Coated Features: Complete gear cable set DESIGNED TO SUIT the top-of-the-range XTR gears

Of course XTR cables are designed to work with XTR gears. Other manafacturers could make that claim

But it also says

Shimano XTR Gear Cable Set PTFE Coated

So that’s what should be sent. Although it would be fine for it to be in an OEM bag

alandavidpetrie79 – thread not closed

Sounds like you either got sent the wrong stuff or someone returned it like that.

+1

At £11 I’ve just ordered myself some, if it’s a wrongun I’ll let you know, thanks for the PSA 😉

I bought the same set

pre cut sp41 outers and ptfe black inners. Came in the same clear bag. All seemed okay to me.

crc have an excellent returns policy so you will easily get your money back

You realize that PTFE coating flakes off and slowly gums up the outers?

What? No it doesn’t.

You realize that PTFE coating flakes off and slowly gums up the outers?

not for me

I’ve had similar-ish problems with crc when I bought a hub and it was obviously second hand and ridiculously notchy. They sent me another one and asked me to throw the notchy one away. They didn’t say as much but I suspect that a customer may have offloaded the hub onto crc through their returns policy.

You realize that PTFE coating flakes off and slowly gums up the outers?

What a load of old tosh. Never had a problem in years of using PTFE coated cables. The mud and dirty grease on the other hand…

Think it must be a new way of saving money by CRC. Seems they are so big now they are getting the stuff direct in bulk from the manufacturers and saving money by not having the cost of retail boxes. I just made a large order of bits for a build and almost all of it turned up in nothing more than plastic bags. This included, chain, forks, reverb, & Sram shifters. The only things in retail boxes were from Shimano (pedals and cassette). You do feel a bit cheated not having to open a nice big box to get to your shiney new forks or seat post, but hey ho, price is right & I am sure CRC will honour any guarantees.

If it is oem stuff, some oem stuff is made to a lower spec at request of the bike manufacturers to cut cost.
For instance an oem fork manufactured for a bike company may have a steel steerer instead of the alu steerer that comes with the otherwise identical aftermarket fork.

My recent xt shifter purchase, the indicator window is slighty smaller and squarer and shifter body is slightly a different shape with no cover included to cap the gap left if I choose to remove the indicator.
Is this an oem part that was made this way in order to shave a few pence of each unit for the industry or have they stopped making all xt shifters as the ones I already had that provide the cover plate.

Because to make both at the same time to be sold as an after market product as the same product rather than clearly two different versions of a simmilar product and not making this clear when purchasing would leave a lot of people feeling cheated.

Not all oem stuff has had corners cut to save money, and some that have the corners cut may not effect operation, but in some cases it is not just the fancy packaging that is missing.

I bought the XTR set aswell.

Sp41 outers with black inners with ferrules, rubber sealy bits in a placcy bag. OEM but it works fine.

True. There was no shock pump with the forks & no bleed kit with the Reverb. Both of which I would assume might be there in a retail box.

I’m kinda surprised that CRC et al don’t have to make it clear that you’re not buying retail boxed products, especially if there are things like manuals and bleed kits missing, or if the product is a different spec. When I was building/buying/selling computers I would’ve got into a shed load of trouble for selling OEM software.

It’s our aim to provide a returns service that is totally hassle-free for you. If you’re not completely satisfied with an item you may return it within 12 months of purchase, and as long as the item isn’t fitted or used we’re happy to receive it back for a refund.

https://www.collectplus.co.uk/returns/new/chainreactioncycles

Why would shimano make two types of XT shifter?
The tooling and limited production run would mean there is no cost saving and it diminishes their brand to have different qualities/standards of XT out there.

I agree some forks have some minor differences though but they are usually branded as that bike makers or have a different number – ie they are clearly identifiable.
I have a Santacruz hope hub – it is a hop hub with santacruz etched on it that is the only difference – that woudl be considered OEM

@chip I didnt think newer XT shifters included the blanking cap anymore. Its available to buy as a separate part though.
Which model XT shifters are you comparing? Unless they’re the same model code I think its unlikely they would produce two slightly different versions of the same shifter.

BIgyinn, you are correct.
I had a little shuftie through my orders and both of my previous 10 speed xt shifters I bought in pairs one set not too long ago were sold as xt 10speed m770 shifters.

And my most recent acquisition was a xt 10 speed m780 shifter.
I think the 770 are better and have the cover plate, although the 780 are slighty smaller and maybe as such a cigarette paper lighter.

CRC are my first port of call for parts and as said above there returns policy is hassle free if you are not happy with anything purchased.

no bleed kit with the Reverb

My Reverb came from CRC in the fancy box with bleed kit included.

Despite me now living in the USA, ordering from is are still cheaper for many things, including Reverb posts 😯

To be fair to CRC it does state that there is no bleed kit included, and at £170 with the COMP discount, who am I to complain? Especially since I have the bleed kit already 🙂

Just to update this.
I returned from a week off to find my XTR cable set in my desk.
Consisting of:-

2x long lengths grey SP41 outer (approx 24″ incl sealed ferrules)
3x med lengths grey SP41 outer (approx 12″ incl sealed ferrules)
2x rubber shields + ferrules
2x metal endcaps.
2x black PTFE cables.

Exactly what I would have expected. All looks to be correct spec bits.

So I’ve ordered another as a well!

The OP should deffo send his back (if he hasnt already!).

The other set turned up in a sealed bag with all the requisite doodahs, much like the first. Bargain.

CRC tat outrage post turns into CRC offer good deal on genuine XTR cables shocker

what turned up was a bag of tat that looked like SIS pre-made outers salvaged from something bought from Argos along with 2 Clarks inners (both the same length). Not a Shimano label in sight.

SIS = Shimano Index System

Think it must be a new way of saving money by CRC. Seems they are so big now they are getting the stuff direct in bulk from the manufacturers and saving money by not having the cost of retail boxes.

This. When I order parts from CRC now I just expect OEM stuff to turn up, and consider it a nice surprise if I receive anything in a retail box.

The way I look at it is if I got all my stuff fitted by an LBS then I wouldn’t ask for the packaging anyway.

I returned from a week off to find my XTR cable set in my desk.
Consisting of:-

2x long lengths grey SP41 outer (approx 24″ incl sealed ferrules)
3x med lengths grey SP41 outer (approx 12″ incl sealed ferrules)
2x rubber shields + ferrules
2x metal endcaps.
2x black PTFE cables.
Thats exactly what I received when I ordered one of these a year go.

This. When I order parts from CRC now I just expect OEM stuff to turn up, and consider it a nice surprise if I receive anything in a retail box.

This also. Which usually I do not have an issue with. After all, the packaging is only going to get binned. For example, here is how Shimano rotors shipped from CRC now:

Only problem is, when there are differences between the actual product spec. For example, brakes coming with a different hose system. Wouldn’t been an issue if mentioned on the product page.

They are better packaged than the Shimano ice rotors I had delivered the other week which were just in bubble wrap bags!

The recent components I bought which turned out to be OEM from CRC has finally made me decide not to buy any components from them again.

Chain all twisted up in a plastic bag was a good example of how not to supply parts.