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Never having a bike with a Sram rear mech before, I've noticed I seem to be catching it more regular on the same trails than I did with a Shimano rear mech.
Out riding Wednesday evening I caught something on the trail, don't what it was (it was dark) but it resulted in the rear mech getting tangled in the wheel. I managed to pull it out and finish off the ride. On inspection last night, I need to replace the hanger (second one this year) and I need to replace the jockey wheels (which cost an arm an a leg) as they clinging to the chain for some reason.
I've ridden the same trails for years on a shimano equipped bike and never have broken the rear mech in this manner. While I was looking for jockey wheels, I've noticed that I can get a shimano XT M8000 mech for £20 less that the GX mech that is on my bike.
At this rate I'd be far better off (monetary wise) to move back to Shimano. Is this the right way to go?
Yup, shimano's shadow plus tech means the mech is tucked in a lot more than SRAM ones, especially eagle mechs as they're so huge to accommodate the 50t gear.
Can’t say I’ve ever caught the Sram mechs on either bike apart from when I went over the handlebars a few years back and battered the bike sideways into a load of rocks. The mech survived but the hanger didn’t!
What speed mech have you got? The jockeys expired in my GX 11 speed mech and I replaced them with Nx jockeys for £15 ish instead. They have bushings instead of bearings so shouldn’t seize in the same way hopefully.
If it’s 10 speed then bbb make some cheap replacement jockeys or you can get Chinese Aluminium ones on eBay. Whilst the Aluminium ones look and feel nice I’m finding them a bit noisy in my x9 mech so I’m going to swap them out for bbb ones I think.
@joebristol - It's the 11 speed mech. I did find the NX jockeys for around £15. But I need them quickly and can only get the more pricier variants locally. I'm hoping that it's only the jockeys that are gone. If I need a new mech, I'll be going for the M8000 mech and shifter.
I can't say how it compares to Sram but one of the main reasons for the re-design to the Shadow configuration was to reduce the likelihood of strikes.
Yes, from your experience and the "shadow" mech was made to be less prone to catching on things.
Of course, people who never hit rocks with their mech will never hit rocks with any mech, but that sort of answer doesn't really help you! (I've never had more than a minor scrape, at least when I've been still attached to the bike...)
Ah, the proper GX jockeys are really expensive. Have the bearings seized or have you actually damaged the cog part of the jockey?
I have has similar experience on a Charge cooker I bought a couple of years ago.
Derailleur went on a trip through the spokes and broke the hanger.
I went for a Shimano derailleur and shifter as I had lot of shifting issues - more ghost shifting than on my full suspension!
No issues of indexing since the move
(I still have the remains of the GX unit with barely worn jockeys if anyone would like it for spares)
@Alib YGM
No issue with rock strikes 3 years and 3000miles into my GX derailleur.
I smashed multiple SRAM (1 X5, 1 X9, one 10s X9, one 10s x5) mechs in one summer having only killed one Shimano one in about 10 years. Went back to shimano and done one since.
Put that down partially to the shape of the mech and partially shimano just seem the shrug off impacts when they did happen, the big CNC'd bits on SRAM mechs just bent and folded.
Thisisnotaspoon- that’s a lot of mechs - 2 Shimano and a number of Sram ones. What are you doing to them?! Touch wood I’ve literally never smashed a mech.
Above posts: yes - that's what we see in the group I'am biking with as well. Lots of loose stuff on the trails here - bad for both - SRAM and Shimano. But definitely more trouble with SRAM.
Thisisnotaspoon- that’s a lot of mechs – 2 Shimano and a number of Sram ones. What are you doing to them?! Touch wood I’ve literally never smashed a mech.
I've been mountain biking properly since ~2002 so it's not so many on a mech's per year basis.
I bought a bike that came with SRAM 9speed, broke two mechs in quick succession, swapped to 10s because there was a cheap mech for sale on here, broke that, tried once more then went to Zee and had no problems.
It could be down to luck, but that's a lot of mechs to get through in a short period of time!
I've probably wacked a few more shimano ones with slight bends that could be twisted out, or eventually they wore out, or just because why bother with jockey wheels when a zee mech was £20, but only two were bent enough to ruin the ride, all four SRAM's bent to the point of not shifting or only shifting in a few gears
i definately seem to hit my GX 11s derailleur more often, and it needs retuning more often,
mine broke hitting a single large boulder type rock at the top of cutgate where it flattens out and their are no rocks (well except the one i hit), my legs where tired from nearly making a clean run up the tough part, unfortunately my tired legs and arms didnt get the brain message that a boulder was in front and to peddle around it..
the spring has gone on that mech so it will only change 10 speed..
that said i snapped my XT at the pin join in my local woods, no idea what i hit, didnt see anything on the ground
I moved from SRAM because of this issue. 4 derailleurs in a year was getting ridiculous. Swapped to Shimano xt and no issues since.
I've had more problems with the SRAM clutch wearing out and being next to useless. The type 2.1 clutch on the 11 speed GX can not easily be adjusted (bloody Shimano patents!). I've got a type 3 clutch on an NX mech on now, so we'll see how long it lasts.
Yep, currently running the GX Eagle.... And I usually don't hit mechs but have with this one.
I'm still an sram fanboy though.
Oh, anyone getting new Eagle Jocky wheels, make sure you get the new sram ones that stop the chain coming off in the cage and destroying the mech!!
Well worth hunting down.
Can you all really be confident these are rock strikes?
YMMV but it seems so unlikely to me that there's clearance for your cranks and pedals to get past something that then hits the mech.
More likely bent hanger, poor adjustment or crappy quality to blame and making the mech jam. Chain sticking to jockey wheels for instance.
@cynic-al, On the bike stand when turning the pedals the chain is clinging to the jockey wheels. Almost seems like the thick part of the jockey is too thick and not releasing. I can't quite put my finger on it. Yes obviously the hanger is now bent, that's the second hanger this year.
You may be on to something about set up. I have really struggled to get it to shift smoothly up and down the cassette. The cassette only has a couple hundred miles on it along with the chain, so I guess the next thing to change out if I can't solve it, is a new mech.
If that is the case being a life long Shimano user, I'll go with the XT mech.
Sort of an update.. Two new jockey wheels and a hanger later it's all shifting nicely.
What I have noticed now everything is back together, the cage of the mech is very close to the spokes. More so than my Shimano equipped bike. I suspect the XD driver cassettes sit closer to the spokes than the shimano cassettes.