SRAM X9 Rear Mech & Shifters

For about 3 years I have fitted my bikes with Shimano XT drivetrain including crankset, front and rear mechs and shifters; however recently I bought a job-lot of SRAM X9 cheap on e-Bay (rear mech and front and rear shifters). I was interested to see how the SRAM compared to my trusted XT.

During my 3 years with XT I have gone through a couple of cranksets, 4 cassettes, 8 sets of chain rings, new bottom bracket bearings every 3-4 months and 5 rear mechs. I’ve always liked XT although I find getting the gears set up to be consistently super smooth is a hassle. When the gears are on-song the shifting is very smooth but I find it requires constant cable adjustments to keep them smooth and I have become used to ‘over-pushing’ the shifters to ensure gear changes. XT is easy to fit, adjusting the rear mech high & low stops is straightforward however I find that the screws need to be adjusted and then the mech physically pushed across to see where it ‘stops’ achieving 100% accuracy is very difficult. Tensioning the cable is the usual fiddle. It was at this stage when the differences between the SRAM X9 and XT started to become apparent.

The SRAM rear mech looks more flimsy than XT but the most obvious difference before fitting is the strength of the spring, boy is it strong making it very difficult to extend the mech prior to fitting to the bike. The rear mech bolts on no problem. The instructions emphasise setting the jockey wheels at the appropriate distance from the cassette and adjusting the high and low stops accurately. Unlike XT as the SRAM rear mech stops are adjusted the whole mech and cage moves a couple of mm with each half turn of the screws, the screws are also labelled hi&lo for the forgetful (handy for me). Setting the stops is a breeze compared to XT. After all this it was time to fit the chain and the gear cables. No problems, I pulled the cables tight and locked them with the allen bolt. The gears were perfect! A revelation. Changing gear requires a slightly firmer push than XT but the change itself is much more positive and definite. 3 weeks later and the gears have not needed a single adjustment. The SRAM Shifters look conventional but operate on a push-push principle using just thumbs, this was very easy to get used to and after 30 minutes it was second nature.

All in all I’m very impressed with the SRAM set up. I’ve read all about the pros and cons of 2:1 (XT) and 1:1 (SRAM) pull ratios but to me it is irrelevant, the most important thing is how they perform when I use them. I fitted the SRAM X9 to my bike basically because I got it cheap on e-Bay; however I think both the setting up and gear changing are much better than XT and I will keep using it on my trail bike. The downside is cost I tend to snap, bend and break rear mechs on my fun/play bike so for this I will stick to XT which is 50% cheaper. On pure practicality and performance the SRAM X9 is streets ahead of XT.