SLX. Is it just me?

stunning looks ontop off decent prices & so far great performance & plus imo its as good a looking as xtr.

i think the main reason is that its new & quite a few people don,t know weather its a down or upgrade to lx xt ? .

it’s all about the marketing really and what people think it says about them:

xtr: fast enough to value low weight over durability.
xt: light weight without the durability penalty
deore: not worried about weight

lx: seemed to have drifted into no mans land between deore xt

slx: is for light freeride/ trail centre type hucking.

I have slx cranks but i bought short ones! doh!

it looks cheap, heavy and very 1990’s race face evolve xc to me

well wanted an LX cassette and shifters and LBS said don’t bother
Either buy deore, it will work just the same and probably weight not much, or if weight is an issue just buy XT.

So ended up buying a pair of Deore shifters and a XT cassette.

So there we go, SLX. Buy it or don’t, its great or a marketing con. Thing is, SLX is fairly similar to XT now, e.g. shifters use the same internals but different materials. What will they do to XT to make it better? Multiple upshifts a la XTR?

Great marketing con? Marketing hype?

I’ve seen SLX specced as much on full on arse in the air XC bikes as anything else!

LX needed a change, it was occupying a poor middle ground between XT and Deore, and Shimano recognised this. Who after all is going to buy anything that doesn’t offer any performance or weight advantage over Deore if it also costs more!

Regarding the performance advantage over LX, well yes, it does have some. Though primarily in the same way that M770 XT has over M760, or M970 XTR over M960. If they’d called it “new LX” I’d still be saying it was as good as it is being called “SLX”.

In answer to thisisnotaspoon, I have never seen an LX HT2 crankset with the steel axle, maybe they did produce one, but I have never seen it. SLX comes with the steel axle full stop. Have I ever seen one snap? No, but I have heard of the Alloy ones doing so under extreme use (something I am never going to do admittedly). SLX cranks are also only 880g all in, compared to XT’s 853g. LX are quite a bit heavier! I was going to buy an XT chainset originally, but when I learnt that SLX was only 27g heavier, had the same composite type middle ring, and a steel axle, all for £30 less, I was sold.

Regarding its uses, I’d be just as happy running XT or XTR for the same “all mountain” uses everyone seems to purport that the SLX groupset is designed for. In Reality, it’s just a good middle ground groupset, with enough options (2 or 3 ring cranks, short or long cage rear mechs, differetn brake rotor sizes etc.) as standard to cater for different types of riders. Something that XT and XTR didn’t offer until their current generation either!

Forget the marketing bollox, it’s just a good VFM groupset. Seems to work as well (or as near to it) as XT, it’s priced the same as LX was, is significantly lighter and probably stronger than LX. It’s all good stuff! If they’d kept it silver and kept calling it LX I’d be saying the same thing.

There is actually a current LX groupset aimed at the touring market –

The problem now is that it isnt so great VFM, the popularity of the groupset and the exchange rates have brought the prices way up to almost XT levels, and as such it’s almost pricing itself out of the area it was aiming for.

I’m building up a new bike, and at the older prices I would have plumbed for a full SLX groupset, but now I’m picking and choosing between them all, Deore, LX, Hone, SLX, XT and XTR to find the best compromises of mass, price and reliability. For shifters Deore, Rear Deraillieur SLX, Front Deailleur XT, Cassette XT, Cranks Hone, Disc calipers XTR and disc levers SLX. I just need a can of black paint to make them all the same colour…

But my point is, SLX is built up from all of the medium priced components of a range of older groupsets to save and make Shimano money. LX, old XT and Hone have been given a new lick of paint and called SLX; a versatile groupset that can be used for moderately light XC machines or Hucking rigs at a bike park. As people are saying, it’s mostly marketing, making you think that things are different.

I love the way someone on here will always try to rip the piss out of the merest suggestion something might be “all mountain”. News flash: in some parts of the world people ride their bikes on terrain which is more technical and challenging than your average field or fire road. I fail to see how any of shimano’s group sets is more or less “all mountain” the others, with the exception of saint.

The same people probably “need” xt or xtr for cross country.

Perhaps these people could write an angry email to shimano an demand their own group set. An ultra lightweight and expensive all mincey range.

Ive been impressed with SLX so far. imo, it is pretty much as good as XT, and only massively noticable difference to XTR (excluding weight and looks(the reason it costs more) is that the shifts on XTR are a lot crisper) The only thing i dont like is the rear mech, which looks like an XT that fell off the production line halfway through, and never got finished. It’s so fugly.

My guess would be price hikes,

XT used to be fine for most now it is getting a bit silly with the price hikes. Shimano have effectively relaunched LX/Hone with some modifications to fill the gap. There is now an acceptable (both fashion and function)alternative to going for the XT/XTR stuff.

While most people don’t need the stronger components it is reassuring to know that they are less likely to break in the crappy conditions we have in the uk winter. And those of us that don’t care much about weight (as long as it isn’t made of cast iron) will also see it as a good saving opportunity.

I wanted some cheap brakes and nearly went the SLX until I saw teh part numbers on shimano website that confirmed that the brake calipers were identical.

The levers are better on SLX though.

You could just buy the LX calipers for a tenner and buy the SLX levers.

Great marketing by Shimano right on the recession.

I just bought some new Hone/Black LX cranks cheap as hell-seem fine.

I think All mountain has a higher risk of collision and I wouldn’t want to replace XTR weekly from hitting rocks.

Something cheaper, burley and does the job is ideal-SLX or even XT on DH rigs.

Its all about available cash and use with some marketing.

Its popular because we is peasants…

It’s funny to me to hear so much about what the parts look like. Wonder what y’all would think of me for running mismatched wheels on the enduro?( black on the front, all white outlaw on the rear!)From the saddle I don’t see any part of the bike, only the trail.
It’s also funny to hear the whole ” it’s just a scheme for shimano to make more money” bit since I’m pretty certain that there’s nothing in shimano’s plan that isn’t about making money.
I wound up getting a full SLX kit because On-one ran out of stock on the XT groups. It all works well enough and the price was right.I still like the sram shifting better.
I think the 32:32 combo feels better than a 22:22 because the chain is engaging so many more teeth. I like staying in the middle ring because having to drop to the granny has a type of defeat attached to it.
And yes, there really are places where “all mountain” bikes fit the bill perfectly. Six inch front and rear seems to be just about right for a simple trail bike where I live.

Been running full SLX since November now, when you use it for a period of time you can see where the costs have been cut out relative to XT. So far had to replace middle and large chainrings on the chainset and the jockey wheels on teh rear mech, XT use sealed bearings, SLX use bushes which wear out.