I have both, SLX are easier to bleed as the servowave bit in the lever can trap air bubbles.

Just ordered the SLX from Bike components £122 delivered. Thanks for all the advice guys

I have both, SLX are easier to bleed as the servowave bit in the lever can trap air bubbles.

??? Both XT and SLX (and Deore for that matter) are servowave. It’s a small metal cam between the lever blade and the piston – nowhere near oil or air bubbles…

The bite adjust screw thing then, screw that in and out on XT during a bleed and you can get more bubbles out. Does little else !

The bite adjust screw thing then, screw that in and out on XT during a bleed and you can get more bubbles out. Does little else !

Ah, Ok that makes more sense! Although it’s a badly kept secret that the SLX does have the bite point adjust mechanism (or free stroke as Shimano call it) in the lever, but Shimano just put a blanking screw in the hole to disable it on the SLX, to make a point of differentiation with the XT. Some clever folks over on MTBR here have removed the blank and put a normal M4 screw back in to activate it on SLX and Zee levers. Can’t be bothered myself, because as you say, does bu@@er all on my XTs anyway!

I had a bleed that was, for me, too sharp, I backed off the bite adjust and that helped give a little space between lever position and bite point. It’s not totally useless.

free stroke

😛

Just ordered the SLX from Bike components £122 delivered. Thanks for all the advice guy

How quickly do they usually deliver?

My experience of the German shops has been really good – I have had my stuff within three days or so. That’s faster than Howies can get stuff to me from Wales!

The only issue that I have had is being tight and selecting DPD instead of DHL as on option on Bike Discount. They decided to leave my parcel outside the front door in the p*ssing rain rather than take to the post office of leave with a neighbour like DHL do.