What's better for freeride/DH? Shimano SLX or SRAM X7?

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What's better for freeride/DH? Shimano SLX or SRAM X7?
Author Message
flag ninjatarian
Posted: Apr 22, 2011 at 21:30 Quote
XO = XTR = Saint > X9 = XT > SLX > X7

Thats how It feels to me.

For DH, go either SLX or Saint unless you are racing or rich. You can run a cheap but strong ultegra deraileurs with shimano shifters.
flag qui2gozos
Posted: Apr 23, 2011 at 0:56 Quote
ninjatarian wrote:
XO = XTR = Saint > X9 = XT > SLX > X7

Thats how It feels to me.

For DH, go either SLX or Saint unless you are racing or rich. You can run a cheap but strong ultegra deraileurs with shimano shifters.

Have you tried the Saint derailleur? How does it feel? I'm planning on getting Saint cranks but don't really know as much about their derailleurs.
flag ninjatarian
Posted: Apr 23, 2011 at 1:11 Quote
I run a Saint rear derailleur with XT shifter on my Voltage. Feels great, possitive shifting, very strong without a ton of weight. It feels way better than the SLX or X7 I have on two other bikes, no comparison.

Im running mine with a full 11-34 cassette. It has a special setting specifically for an 11-2x road cassette if you ever want to go that route

photo
flag qui2gozos
Posted: Apr 23, 2011 at 1:19 Quote
ninjatarian wrote:
I run a Saint rear derailleur with XT shifter on my Voltage. Feels great, possitive shifting, very strong without a ton of weight. It feels way better than the SLX or X7 I have on two other bikes, no comparison.

Im running mine with a full 11-34 cassette. It has a special setting specifically for an 11-2x road cassette if you ever want to go that route

photo

Nice bike! Beer Do you think that skipping the SLX is better in terms of price and reliability?
flag ninjatarian
Posted: Apr 23, 2011 at 1:25 Quote
No. SLX will be just as reliable in terms of durability as the others (except Saint) and you can get it for a considerable ammount cheaper. The SLX will weigh more, wont shift as nicely, and wont look as nice. All comes down to what matters to you.
flag YetiSuperX
Posted: Apr 23, 2011 at 1:45 Quote
qui2gozos wrote:
YetiSuperX wrote:
Sorry to say for those Shimano folks out there... SLX sucks big time
Slams chai

nstay, chain is sooo slack, extremely poor shifting performance, you can't shift when pedalling for real, just forget about shifting quick and on the go, only shift when in saddle or VERY gentle, takes ages to shift gears, the shifter is awkward to reach, and I could go on...

My old Yeti AS-X had 2008 X9 which was wayyyyy better!!

EDIT: By the way I've only had SLX for 2 weeks

what did you do to make it suck that bad?

Best setting I could achieve... Either my SLX got flaws or else I'm the only one who's abusing SLX too much lol Maybe SLX just can't handle a BMX racer Rolleyes
flag ninjatarian
Posted: Apr 23, 2011 at 1:52 Quote
Maybe it needs to be tuned. It works fine. SLX used to be called Hone which was kind of like and economy Saint line, its half decent stuff.
flag Dirt-Street-Park
Posted: Apr 23, 2011 at 1:56 Quote
I thought SLX used to be LX.
flag ninjatarian
Posted: Apr 23, 2011 at 1:58 Quote
Dirt-Street-Park wrote:
I thought SLX used to be LX.

True, they replaced LX and Hone with SLX
flag turtlesauce2000
Posted: Apr 23, 2011 at 3:51 Quote
SLX = FAT WIN!!!!

I have it on my DH bike with a deore shifter and what ever that guy was saying about not being able to change gears when pedaling hard is a load of BS. My mate has an X9 dérailleur on his big hit i have an slx on my big hit, he has had umpteen problems with the limit screws falling out when hes riding ive had none. SLX > X9.

My only beef with shimano is that the only short cage MTB dérailleur is saint, which i dont fancy paying £80 for. In saying that though i have never had any problem where my SLX medium cage is hitting stuff in rock gardens or bouncing around like a dafty so maybe short cage isnt necessary.
flag YetiSuperX
Posted: Apr 23, 2011 at 4:23 Quote
This is biased sh*t... those who like shimano says SLX/Saint and those who dig Sram says X7/X9 Rolleyes
flag lely-pie
Posted: Apr 23, 2011 at 4:24 Quote
i think since shimano stepped up their game, both company are on par with each other.
flag qui2gozos
Posted: Apr 23, 2011 at 4:26 Quote
ninjatarian wrote:
No. SLX will be just as reliable in terms of durability as the others (except Saint) and you can get it for a considerable ammount cheaper. The SLX will weigh more, wont shift as nicely, and wont look as nice. All comes down to what matters to you.

Thanks man! Beer have you tried out an X7 already?
flag qui2gozos
Posted: Apr 23, 2011 at 4:30 Quote
YetiSuperX wrote:
This is biased sh*t... those who like shimano says SLX/Saint and those who dig Sram says X7/X9 Rolleyes

Yeah, i agree with you Frown To be honest, i'm leaning more on SRAM but i want to hear the opinions of those who use Shimano because i don't know much on Shimano so I want to be educated about them.
flag connen31
Posted: Apr 23, 2011 at 4:36 Quote
Always hated setting up shimanos, ive been running sram whenever i get the choice. Running an x9 right now after finaly swaping out my x7. After it 4th or 5th time threw the spokes after snaped hangers i decided to retire it. Cosmeticly it looks like shit now but still perfectly straight.

Further more, shimano as a company is owned by the japanese stock market whilst sram was (not currently sure but i think it still is) a american rider owned company.

 


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