January 10, 2006
Allenawi

Product Review:
Wham SRAM, Thank you Ma'am!

After my derailleur incident, I decided to get some new dangly bits from SRAM. An X-9 as a matter of fact. A few phone calls to Boon the LBS guy and the Chief had me convinced that the price range is right and "guarantee you with the frame of my Santa Cruz Blur" assurances from the Chief, who is an ardent fan of SRAM by the way.

I have never had anything but Shimano's before this but while the performance of my XT is by and large satisfactory, there were, shall we say no excitement in my, ummm, shifting life. I have grown accustomed to its quirkiness and was careful how I push her buttons, …I mean her levers. I know how to shift under load, under mud and under various conditions. I treat her well, she treats me well. As I was to find out during a certain 6 months of separation, there was a certain frailty about her. On the surface nothing has changed, the wiring is still the same, but clearly something was amiss.

The responses were a tad off, and I was worried that I am loosing my touch. So I made sure the bits were properly lubed. But no, it was hard to put my finger on it though, too greasy!.

So to cut a long story short, I decided to take a chance with SRAM X-9. To be fair we were not properly acquainted but decided to get into action right away. I ripped away the plastic and marveled at what is underneath. I admired her angular features compared to the slightly rounder features of the Shimano. Another feature that stood out was the jockeys which were clearly bigger than Shimano's. Wow! that's...err, can't think of a suitable metaphor.

The sight of an X-9 really made me swoon. Her design suggests a certain athleticism and robustness. The minimalist parallelogram body design with H and L limit screws conveniently located on the face of the body immediately tells me how much thought has gone into the design process. The cabling was ingenious, no looping to the back and snaring twigs or lalang snubs. Instead the cabling runs clean across the top of the parallelogram. The simplicity is just mesmerising. On the cage is stenciled the words: "1:1 Actuation Ratio". If that statement gets your geek juice flowing, here is what it means. A unique property of SRAM's ESP design, this means that for each millimeter of cable moved in the shifter, an equal millimeter will be moved in the derailleur. This allows a greater acceptance of off-road conditions (dirt, water, sand, etc.) and also gives SRAM a unique shifting technology. Conversely, Shimano uses a 2:1 ratio for its shifting systems. This means that for every one millimeter of movement in the cable there will be two millimeters of corresponding movement in the rear derailleur. Well, what does all this gobbledygook mean to my shifting life? It means that Shimano derailleurs shift as well as SRAM derailleurs UNTIL something interferes with the shifting process (sand, mud, dirt, water, crashes). Once that occurs Shimano derailleurs, because they move two millimeters for every millimeter of cable pulled, become 'out-of-tune' more quickly than the 1:1 based derailleurs offered by SRAM.

Don't know about you but for someone who has not been much lucky in the derailleur department, that just sounded heavenly!.

SRAM also supply the Teflon coated black cables which I think is a very nice touch, though I suspect it is more marketing than any performance enhancer.

Overall, I must say I have nothing but positive vibes from the X-9. Everything was in tune, shifting up and down was exceptionally precise and crisp, admired the ingenious cable routing and I love the minimalist design to bits. Would I rate this better than my XT? Absolutely and in fact at least a level higher. It definitely has brought some enthusiasm back to my cycling – "SRAM X-9, that's my line". Next time you see me on the trail, go on, ask me how good I'm getting it.

-Allenawi