Looking for a new rear mech. What’s the differance between the ‘XT M772 Shadow’ and the ‘XT M7719’ In the real world? Shadow should be a smaller profile I guess but then you’d normally pay for something to be smaller – yet it’s cheaper… I’m confused. Then, I start looking at Sram and think should I have a Sram one instead? Rest of the drive train is Shimano XT so any reason to change?

Shadow mechs now more common, so cheaper, maybe economies of scale. Switching to SRAM isn’t an easy option since the shifters aren’t compatible.

I’m still on 9speed so thought they were?

Nope, you can’t run a Sram rear mech with a Shimano shifter.

Ok, decision made cheers

Shadow mechs would appear to have mixed reviews – while they are lower-profile, what I’ve read suggests it may be at the expense of overall longevity. Personally it’s not been impressive enough to move me away from a standard XT mech, but YMMV.

And as above, SRAM rear mechs need more cable pull than Shimano per shift, hence not being compatible with Shimano levers.

I’ve got standard XT on one bike, an’ shadow on ‘tother. Wasn’t expecting to see a difference, but was surprised by noticeably better shifting on the shadow. Can’t speak for longevity as I’ve only had it a few months. Some people say shadow is more difficult to set up, but I think its just ‘different’, and the instructions are in the Shimano tech docs…

Disappointed with the OE XT Shadow mech on one of my bikes. When it works, the shifting is very light and quiet but it takes a lot of attention to keep it like this.

Contrast to the X9/X7 set ups on my other bikes which have survived frequent, intense neglect for months. Clunky yes but they never miss a shift.

Can’t say i’ve noticed much difference between XTR shadow and non shadow. Setting up was easy enough for both. Advantage of shadow is that you’re less likely to clout it on anything stuck out.

Advantage of shadow is that you’re less likely to clout it on anything stuck out.

…but if you do it’s a goner, no? Whereas it would *seem* ‘conventional’ mechs might hold up slightly better

My XT 771 Snapped in less than two months with no external contact at all! The replacement shadow is still going strong two years on.

Rode through a big rock field last week and could have sworn I was going to clip my mech but it sits nicely inboard out of the way. I’d recommend one.

EDIT: Actually I did hear one story of somebody that got a shadow mech in the wheel with bladed spokes and it made a right mess… but then that could easily happen with a conventional mech.

The shadow mechs are nice and out of the way and they do away with the cable loop at the back. The old style does have a much stronger fixing though – straight into the mech hanger. (SRAM still have this style) The shadow’s is linked to the hanger via a rather flimsy pivoting plate, which will sheer where the old one would have survived…. My recent experience is, if you smack the shadow on something you now lose the mech hanger AND the mech (since this “linkage” part of the shadow mech, which breaks easily, is not replaceable, (naturellement!)) rather than just the hanger. You are less likely to hit it with it being more inboard though…

The SRAM mechs look like they might have replaceable parts – is that the case?

btw: If you’re not dead set on XT, the SLX shadow ones are the same design, only slightly heavier and much cheaper.

snapped a parallelogram pivot pin on XT shadow after 3 months of normal use – not impressed.

Wont be buying another as its an arse getting my wheel out with shadow commpared to normal(may be bike dropout specific but the problem exists)

btw: If you’re not dead set on XT, the SLX shadow ones are the same design, only slightly heavier and much cheaper

Yeah I know but it doesn’t say XT does it….. 🙄

God I’m shallow.