XTR M9000 and XT M8000 shifters

K

komdotkom

Likes Bikes and Dirt
I managed to break the shifter lever off my M9000 XTR shifter on Wednesday after a very small incident, I was astonished that it was broken since I had almost no missing skin and hadn't actually hit anything (apart from the ground).
So I managed to finish the ride on a single speed which wasn't ideal, but I wasn't too upset since I figured that you could purchase a replacement lever. Wrong. Here's a picture of the broken lever, it's alleged to be 'carbon fibre' but I'd call it carbon impregnated plastic, it's got random loose carbon strands in it there's no weave.



So I thought I'd buy an M8000 XT shifter and rob the lever to see if I could swap over the aluminium shifter from XT to the XTR, would be a decent upgrade since the XTR is so fragile. So Pushys shipped one to me overnight and I started stripping the levers to work out how I'd go about swapping the broken part, only to find that the internals are identical. I know that there are seldom massive differences between the different series of parts (the previous generation of SLX/XT brakes are a great example of this) but fuck me, double the price for a fragile lever and a fancy bar clamp is bullshit.
Here are the pics of both shifters, XTR is the broken one clearly without the cover on the centre bolt, the XT has a stick on cover thing





So when you break your XTR shifter, just find a cheap XT and swap the guts over or even better just run the XT shifter and save yourself $60.
 
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moorey

moorey

call me Mia
As someone running both (2 of each actually)...and only initially got xtr for bar mount without shift window, there is a definite difference in shift quality.
Weight means nothing to me, and xtr is mostly a wank, but I do like the shifters.
 
K

komdotkom

Likes Bikes and Dirt
Since the shifter mech is physically identical I actually think it's the xtr coated cables that make the difference in the way they feel.
Still a very poor shifting experience compared to the XX and xx1 on my other bikes.
 
The Duckmeister

The Duckmeister

Has a juicy midrange
komdotkom said:
it's alleged to be 'carbon fibre' but I'd call it carbon impregnated plastic, it's got random loose carbon strands in it there's no weave.
Click to expand...
That's exactly what the stuff commonly, and incorrectly known as carbon fibre is. Carbon fibre, which can be long, short, unidirectional, marble-laid or woven fibre, is only a part of the final material correctly referred to as carbon composite or carbon-fibre reinforced plastic....
 
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