I have never gone from XT mechs and shifters. If it aint broke and all that!

I’ve tried X9 and XTR and you’d have to pry the XTR out of my cold dead fingers before I’d let go of it!

XTR is smoother, quieter, quicker (to shift) and harder wearing than any of the current SRAM offerings.

X9 just felt clunky and harsh in comparison.

I’ve got XTR shifters and mechs on 3 bikes and haven’t conciously touched the shifting setup in almost a year. I dunno what you folks are doing that requires constant adjustment. If it’s setup properly to begin with, the cabes aint going to stretch THAT much, the barrel adjusters are all you should ever need in the life of an inner cable. When you run out of barrel adjuster it’s time for a new £3 inner cable.

weenie – Member

mmm how many of you guys have actually tried both systems? how can you say “X7 = Catalogue ‘mtb’
X9 = Tourney
X0 = Acera “
Have you really tried all these groupsets?

Yes, and I’d say that Acera and Alivio are about the best performing gear systems out there at the moment! Sure they’re heavier and probably won’t last as long but it always surprises me how well they work when I throw a bike in the stand. X7 is pretty basic stuff….’plasticy’ shifters (some have a positive click out of the box and others don’t….useless quality control) and the mechs are made of cheese.

I’ve gone with an Ultegra block, 105 mech and XT shifters and the shifting is pretty good, and I used to have good luck with road mechs in the past so fingers crossed….

x7=just about afford it
x9=if i don’t eat
x0=my kidney is on Ebay now