I need to buy some new shifters – my bike is all XT but I was wondering if I should save my money and buy SLX instead. Any views?

Using SLX on one bike and can’t notice any difference from the XT’s of one of my other bikes. Or the LX’s on another actually.

A mate has an SLX groupset on his new Merlin Malt 4 and he reckons they are better than his 2 year old XT shifters says they have a shorter more positive lever action.

SLX very good. Slightly more positive feeling than the XT shifters. You can remove the shifter windows as well just like the XT shifters. Personally would save your money and get SLX over XT.

Thanks for the feedbaack. SLX it is – CRC have them at £36 a pair.

MBR review shifters this month (it’s enthralling) and they reckon the SLX are the dogs ding dongs.

I believe the official line is that SLX shifter use exactly the same internal mechanism as the current XT shifters, but are made from different materials (e.g one of the levers is plastic instead of metal). I reckon they are quite good value cf. XT.

08 XT are terrible, 07 are the best & MBR agree, best set ever produced, they state SLX are very similar to 07 XT – 07 XT £36 at Merlin.

slx excellent

very good indeed.

better that the stoopid 36/22 c/set. 😡

Yes, lever shape nice, not as nice as xtr, but much better than xt.