I'm trying to source replacement jockey wheels for my Deore XT rear derailleur (the tension pulley has seized), but I only seem to be able to find non-Shimano spares for XT. £30-ish for a genuine XTR set seems rather excessive when I could replace the whole thing for about £55!

Any ideas why there's a lack of XT spares out there?

Richard

Hi Richard.

I had a similar issue replacing the jockey wheels on my SRAM X9. I bought some BBB jockey wheels from Dotbike for £15. They were much better than the originals.

http://www.dotbike.com/p/3992

Tom R

Cheers Tom - so, ceramic or cheepo?

Richard

I went for cheapo, because I was cheesed off with the poor quality of the X9 gear changers,(they only last a year), and new I would probably be changing the whole system before long. The cheapos were on the bike for 9 months and still working well. I changed to Shimano XT last month.

The best thing about SRAM shifters is the 1:1 ratio which means they are easy to set up and very reliable in shifting. All other aspects are crap. 1 year for the shifters and 18 months for the jockey wheels.

I should have listened to Mark T. I will never wittingly buy SRAM again.

Rant over

XO works great & lasts well. Saying that I have always bought lx or now slx jockey wheels for xtr mechs, £30.... sod that!!

I've never really understood why anyone would choose Sram over Shimano; I just assumed it was what they had on their bike when they bought it, and they'd change it when it (inevitably) failed. Yes, I know I would say that wouldn't I?
However, the only comments I ever read or hear about Shimano is that the stuff wears out. Well, it only wears out if you use it, and as it always works, you do tend to use it more, and forget about it until it's worn out. It will last longer if you clean and maintain it though. It's an argument you can never win, but I would buy reliability every time.

Well, this one could run and run!

I don't think that I would have used SRAM drivetrain - other than their superb chains - if my E-120 hadn't been kitted out with XO shifters and stuff (the front mech is XT though )

But it all works very well, and I've had my problems with Shimano stuff over the years too. And like Mark says, if you look after it then it will last and perform for you. I'm surprised at Uncle Tom's problems with X9 shifters, though. Usually SRAM stuff gets a good press.

I DID once buy XTR jockey wheels for my old XTR rear mech....(looks for "what a fucking waste of time that was" emoticon)

Richard - if I were you I'd buy LX or SLX and reuse the ceramic bearing out of the old XT. Isn't that which makes it XT? Can't see any other differences

PT

LX is now Shimano's 'trekking' groupset, rather than MTB, which means very little other than it tends to use long cage rear mech, larger chainrings, and consequently a different cage on the front mech too.

On another note, non-Shimano chains will wear-out Shimano components (chainrings, jockey wheels) at a different rate because Shimano doesn't design it's products to be used with other manufacturer's bits, it just happens that these manufacturers want their stuff to work with Shimano. Of course they do.

The plates on a Shimano chain are specifically designed to shift on a Shimano chainring. Other branded chains or chainrings cannot use the same designs, only similar, which to most people works fine, but does not give optimum performance.

It's incredible how many bikes I see that have been assembled with a real mix of stuff. New bikes that are designed on a spreadsheet are one thing, but when you build a 'dream' bike for yourself, surely function is more a consideration? Obviously cost is an issue, but Shimano makes an MTB groupset for 10 speed from Deore right up to XTR, so it doesn't have to cost the earth to work well.

I will now sit back, relax, and wait for the bullets to fly.

BTW, Shimano is 90 years old this year, and the first XT groupset was released 30 years ago.

Do Campag make an MTB groupset?

'Madison Rep in "Shimano is best" Shocker!'