Unbiased upgrade opinion

[Splatter Paint]

My son has been telling me his commuter bike rear gear change is ‘clunky’. It also doesn’t shift well down the block.

- We cleaned the drivetrain thoroughly, no change.

- We checked / adjusted the indexing, no change.

- We replaced the cable inner and outer, no change.

So, not telling him what it was, I swapped out his 200GS rear mech for an early noughties LX item. Instantly he said the gear change was better, less clunky and a lot quieter. Problem solved.

I’ve often wondered whether ‘upgrades’ half the time are only a perceived improvement, because we know it is LX/XT/XTR and therefore expect it to be better. Clearly though, there are differences.

In case you’re wondering why a 30 year old bottom of the range mech is still being used daily, my son bent the original Altus item (it is a modern bike). The only thing I had to hand to get him mobile was the 200GS mech. I then bought a mid-range 20 year old mech to replace it…. Cheapskate

 

[Jimmy oldskool]

Sounds like a full XTR groupo is on the cards...Or are you even a dad!?

 

[Splatter Paint]

Funnily enough… he’s got an S-Works with XTR for weekend use, the other bike is just a beater to get to school

 

[setspeed]

Funnily enough… he’s got an S-Works with XTR for weekend use, the other bike is just a beater to get to school

Tbf there's not much point in putting expensive upgrades on a bike which is likely to get left out in the rain/damaged/stolen at some point...

 

[legrandefromage]

200GS has an extra spring mechanism that shifts before the body of the mech moves, this, the 500/400/300LX mechs seemed to suffer from a bit of sluggishnes, even from new

It was dropped later

 

[Splatter Paint]

Interesting, I didn’t know that. 300LX was crap, even new.

 

[Once A Hero]

Looking back at an old pic of my '92 Marin IFT, I can see that I swapped out the original ST-M095 Deore XT brifters for later (i.e. brand new at the time) ST-M560 LX brifters. From memory it was because of the crisper gear shift feel and more responsive brake levers.
I've always found the LX group components to work really well, so can understand why a fair few bike were kitted out with it - albeit they'd add an XT rear mech to make you feel like you had an upgrade.

 

[Titiritero]

Recommended upgrade for any parents in this forum. Plus it is definitely retro. Both my kids have one on their bikes as they keep "parking" their bikes by throwing them to the floor on the derailleur side (even though both have a kickstand). Whenever they move to the next size, this protector follows them, until they can pay for their own lack of care...

 

[brocklanders023]

Looking back at an old pic of my '92 Marin IFT, I can see that I swapped out the original ST-M095 Deore XT brifters for later (i.e. brand new at the time) ST-M560 LX brifters. From memory it was because of the crisper gear shift feel and more responsive brake levers.
I've always found the LX group components to work really well, so can understand why a fair few bike were kitted out with it - albeit they'd add an XT rear mech to make you feel like you had an upgrade.

I did similar, swapping my Deore thumbies for M560 brifters. Revelation at the time weren't they, mini M900 XTR and miles better than previous STI.

Kind of skipped 200gs/300/400/500LX bitd as went from Mountain LX/Exage on the Tufftrax to M550 LX on the Clockwork, which then got upgraded. Brifters on all those were cack and always broke, which I'm remembering now trying to find some M550's that last more than 2 minutes!