Fiddlin this morning ,as you do.
I did the HTN 1.5 yesterday. It was on the cold side of cold. I have a 1 month old x-9 rear mech that has probably done <100miles.
I had swapped tyres for the event ,so today with the wheels off and the bike flipped over I decided to give it an extra clean around that tricky to get at dropout/mech area before I refitted the wheels.
Getting at the accumulated mud around the jocky wheels I noticed they were completely seized up.They werent fouling on the chain or anything ,and even using a rag to get a better grip they wouldnt budge at all.
I backed off the jocky bolts a smidge and they would then spin ,but I could see the whole thing was turning.
I flushed them with a load of GT85 .Still no joy,so I nipped em back up.
It was very cold here ,despite the warmer Wigan climate * ,so I wondered could they be frozen.
I rigged up the hairdryer and with a blast of about 30 seconds they span like a spinning spinny thing.

Surely this cant be right. I’ve been out on some very cold rides,frozen mechs and all sorts,but wouldnt expect a clean bike to have this problem.

It did start to act up on the last lap of the HTN yesterday ,but there was a considerable build up of cack.
The only thing I can think . It was jetwashed yesterday ( something I dont usually do ).
Has anyone else tried spinning their sram jockys by hand lately.?
Do Sram have an operational temperature range for their components?
What is ‘lost ‘ all about?

I just prefer Shimano.

TIM

* on account of all the ovens.

I used to wonder at these threads, then replaced my X9 jockey wheels and they’ve been crap since (well the bottom one has, the top has no bearing).
Mine did that several time (due to sand/mud not the cold), but haven’t had to mess with it for a while (good as I’ve buggered the head on the mounting screw).

Think if it does it again I’ll either try to re-place it with a shimano one, or remove the bearing like I did last year at the start of my holiday – it seized badly, I removed it and the bearings fell out in piece, so I just refitted it and I ran it like that for 2 months…

For the record though I much prefer X9 mechs to shimano due to better shifting and less maintenace (on the shifting front).

if they were jetwashed they could have been holding water which then froze. Only a 5 min job to strip and clean em as there isn’t much to them, I tend to fill them with grease to keep the winter filth at bay, they aren’t a brilliantly engineered part of the drivetrain IMO

Z1ppy, I was told by my lbs that you could not swap them over with Shimano ones, something to do with the X9 ones being off set?

Is this true?

…I was told by my lbs that you could not swap them over with Shimano ones…

Your LBS is correct, and you are stuck with SRAM jockey wheels for the X9. The TACX ones that state compatible with X9 aren’t; the offset centres are wider than the bushing internal diametere:

I fill the gap between the shiney washer and the outside of the bearing with thick white grease.
A big slodge of this , so that it squeezes out on fitting in the cage, keeps the cack out of the bearings (x0 mech) and lets them spin without monthly rebuilds

‘swhy i use x7 and not x9 – the wheels are both bushed. no problems.

you can replace the bottom wheel but not the top with non sram JWs.

i,ve got knc ally ones for a x9 mech in my xt mech with no problems

I find they seize as well but the bearing seals come off no probs, or you could get new bearings.

thwang-01 – Member

i,ve got knc ally ones for a x9 mech in my xt mech with no problems

you sure – kcnc don’t do x9 jockey wheels

AndyPaice – Member
you can replace the bottom wheel but not the top with non sram JWs.

Being as it the bottom one with the bearing, and that causes the issue, this is what I plan to replace with a shimano….

you sure – kcnc don’t do x0 jockey wheels
did you mean KCNC only do XO jockey wheels

eh?

I use an XO one in the bottom of my X9 mech 😉

You can get away with removing the bearings, or a get you home bodge

I thought it could have been the jetwashing. As I said ,something I virtually never ever do. ( We washed the bikes at my mates with his jetwasher,I dont possess such a thing)
I have been MTBing ,let’s just say ,a while . I have never experienced this before.

Once they were spinny spinning I backed them off and slathered plenty finishline ‘wet’ in,mostly because I like the smell.

It’s a funny one.Which is the better system .If nothing else ,the competition has been good for the market.
Shimano tried a push/push system in the past and I didnt like it then ,and still dont. When it’s working Sram is OK ,but I feel that when the going gets tough Shimano works better for longer. Maybe theres more ‘slack’ , I dunno.Incidentally my other bike was also upside down ( although hadnt been washed)and by comparison the jockys span perfectly. They are also however a bit older.
Sram does feel ‘snappier’at times I think.
The number of times though that I’ve accidentally hit the release button and changed to a harder gear when I wanted an easier one…..

It seems more intuitive to push ‘up’ the cassette with thumb ,and click it ‘down’ with index finger.

One day over lunch with my buddy Yozu Shimano, with a mouthful of sashimi,he said that was why it became known as ‘index ‘ shifting.You had to be there.
Next time we’re out in between courses I’ll see what he thinks of the Sram stuff.

TIM