A question on XTR, XT and LX mechs on 90's MTB

[Uncle Grumpy]

Everyone and I mean everyone looked at your rear mech first, it didn't matter what you were riding, rear mech first, instant judgements made, opinions formed within milliseconds before anything else

^ This.

For some reason people see the rear derailleur as some sort of highly important gadget. After all, it swaps between sprockets and that's what makes the bike rideable over all sorts of topography and terrain. The fact that (at least until electronic drivetrains) it is simply a cage attached to a sprung parallelogram and the shifter does the work is irrelevant.

A friend of mine got all excited about a bike at the LBS that they had trouble selling before the next years models came out, so the shop upgraded the rear mech to XTR and he jumped on it as though it was the bargain of the decade. The rest of the bike was all LX - but it had an XTR rear derailleur.

Personally, I find shifters to be the place where I notice higher spec the most - better feel at the fingers. Chains and cassettes too, better quality and durability is more important than the pose value* of a rear derailleur.

Grumps

* having said that, I'm guilty of hoarding SRAM X0 9sp rear mechs... so pose away.

 

[vtwinvince]

I also have a soft spot for RC, way underrated stuff. And you don't see a lot of it around.

 

[Black_puma]

There is a saying that says: from XTR down you should not speak, they are the pleb, you are the king ... or something like that

But since every body rides a XTR, the important thing is ... how many XTR do you have, of course only RD, If you ride with a XTR you are a PRO.

But if you put some colour to the bicycle you are .... holly s .... I haven´t match the cap end of the cables with the hubs!!, this is horrible!!

View attachment 914758

None of my 5 GT's have any XTR, plenty of XT and other levels though, but I won't let that bother me too much. XT is good enough for me!
Great looks, functionality and reliability, without the silly prices of XTR! But that's my take as I don't have a great disposable income.
Most of my bikes come with a mix of Shimano parts and they all work fine together.


I do actually own a Shimano XTR rear derailleur but it's of the Rapid Rise variety !

 

[Mr CC]

Sorry for OT, but I think STX RC has earned itself a picture.

 

[bikeworkshop]

Can you not use an 8spd free hub and axle on them and then recentre?

You can fit an 8 speed fhb onto the hub, but it's a bit nasty, and you'll still need a 7 speed cassette.
But now with a spacer behind.

but the choice of 7 speed cassettes is very limited for range, quality and finish.

XTR's a funny one; the jockey wheels on M735/9 mechs were so much better with their solid ceramic bushes that didn't ever seem to wear out, vs stupidly small ball bearings in the XTR ones.

The early ceramic jockey wheels on xtr m900 - the little ceramic sleeve breaks easily - but perhaps shimano went back to tiny bbs for xtr because they are more reliable.
If you actually were pro racing, you'd fit new jockeys every race!

STX cromica, or "koromica" in shimanospeak, was stx se (special edition).

I was curious about which STX parts were done like that and which weren't as I seemed to remember it being a special edition or some such. Anyway, according to Shimano's page it's actually 'Kuromika plating (black tin-nickel alloy plating)'. More useless information that has no doubt just pushed out something useful from my head...

But was there another one?

 

[Cloverleaf]

You can fit an 8 speed fhb onto the hub, but it's a bit nasty, and you'll still need a 7 speed cassette.
But now with a spacer behind.

but the choice of 7 speed cassettes is very limited for range, quality and finish.

Ahh, in my head it was as simple as taking an 8spd free hub and axle and converting it that way. Then again I suspected that would have been a much more common approach back in the day if it had actually worked as simply as I thought it could. Is the hub body itself a different width on the 7spd vs 8spd stuff?

The early ceramic jockey wheels on xtr m900 - the little ceramic sleeve breaks easily - but perhaps shimano went back to tiny bbs for xtr because they are more reliable.
If you actually were pro racing, you'd fit new jockeys every race!

I never found the ones in XT to be any different in friction when cracked compared to when they weren't, as long as there was a little lube in there but as ever local muds probably had an impact on that too. It's amazing how tough stuff is now compared to all that time ago. My current XTR 12spd mech is still on original jockeys and still functioning fine after 3 years of abuse (the same couldn't be said of the SRAM X01 it replaced after 9 months!).

STX cromica, or "koromica" in shimanospeak, was stx se (special edition).

But was there another one?

Ahh, I didn't realise it was called SE, I thought there was just STX and STX RC. I think the only difference was the cranks and hubs being coated on the SE version compared to the normal one? The linkages on the base STX still had the same coating. It was a very pretty finish. That's where all the modern stuff falls flat; paint and plastic just doesn't have the same appeal. Even the carbon on the XTR somehow manages to look bland. The new Madone rear mech looks good though, and it's even available in anodised purple!

 

[bikeworkshop]

There are some shimano models where a 7 speed freehub body can almost be bolted straight on, but as a rule the axle needs a few different spacers, sometimes the seal on the drive side cone is a different size, although usually the profile is the same, and sometimes the wheel needs redishing because you've lost space on the non-drive end of the axle

 

[Twozaskars]

My 2000ish Karakoram is the other way - full LX M570 but an M750 front mech. I just assumed they fitted what was available, I can't see any reason that a previous owner would have changed it. I like the grey with the slight blue tint it has but the brakes look a bit chubby.

 

[bikeworkshop]

It's very unlikely it was o.e.

I've never seen a new bike supplied with a higher quality front than rear mech in many thousand bike sales.

It's quite easy to twist a new triple derailleur if it's knocked or poorly set up - and if the shop had an xt on the shelf, it would make more sense to fit that rather than order an lx in at the same price.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

I have a combination of Alivio, STX and STX RC on mine 90s Univega. I remember I liked the STX RC name when I was young.

I fell for STX back in day, and upgraded the rear mech on my Hardrock. It took me twentysomething years, but I finally upgraded the front mech to match last summer. Don't look at my crank though.

Then Ryan turned up (year above and worked in the local shop) with an XTR mech and crankset on his Eldridge Grade

Domenic. My "Ryan" was called Domenic. He's why I don't want you looking at my crank


*everyone who is saying nice things about STX gets a