XTR - Old vs New

[Prodigal Son]

Re: Re:

M900 has the looks for sure, but M950 was a major boost in performance. Build for racing means not build to last. V brakes were a huge step forward. M900 shifters/levers, well... they look great and fit nicely, but aren’t good in shifting accuracy. M950 is rock solid shifting.

i have a set of m950 cranks/bb w/ a wasted middle ring i would happilly trade for a m900 set up in any shape as long as the tapers are good.

 

[Thias]

I have a m952 (9spd) setup on my Mantra - the shifting is very good and solid. The brakes were a bit mushy and the joints wore out pretty quickly - I switched to Maguras. The M900 I have on 5 of my bikes. It's very precise shifting. The brakes are not as good as the v-brakes BUT they don't rattle or wear.

 

[Prodigal Son]

The m950 rear derrailleur is awesome though.

 

[greencat]

I rather like the M950 brakes (and I have a set on one of my shopping bikes), but agree the M900 ones are likely to outlast them.

 

[scant]

M900 purely for the looks

 

[TOMAS]

Got bikes with full M900, M950 and M952. I have never found ANYTHING that shifts as crisp as my M950, that goes for modern day stuff too. Trouble with modern day is skinny chains, minute tolerances and clutch mechs. The M950 gets it for me, every time.

 

[Prodigal Son]

Got bikes with full M900, M950 and M952. I have never found ANYTHING that shifts as crisp as my M950, that goes for modern day stuff too. Trouble with modern day is skinny chains, minute tolerances and clutch mechs. The M950 gets it for me, every time.

I wonder what difference is there between the shifting parts on those 2 xtr groups. Usually shimano comes up w/ acronyms and big names whenever they add something; SIS or Hyperglide. Is there anything different on the RF shifters, chain, cassetes or derr geometry from 900 to 950?

 

[al-onestare]

It was great to see Doddy talk passionately about "our" scene and not ridicule it (too much) and best of all, actually ride "our" bikes in anger.

 

[FluffyChicken]

Got bikes with full M900, M950 and M952. I have never found ANYTHING that shifts as crisp as my M950, that goes for modern day stuff too. Trouble with modern day is skinny chains, minute tolerances and clutch mechs. The M950 gets it for me, every time.

I wonder what difference is there between the shifting parts on those 2 xtr groups. Usually shimano comes up w/ acronyms and big names whenever they add something; SIS or Hyperglide. Is there anything different on the RF shifters, chain, cassetes or derr geometry from 900 to 950?

m950 shifter had a new design, (Rapidfire SL) that was the biggest change that made shifting light and actually work. m900 are a terrible shifters and broke (it made me go gripshift and i love them ever since)
many of the other changes were in the M910 groupset, which gained extra IG cassette shifting, lighter (not always good) helical spring for the mech, rather than the old (torsion?) spring.
It did of course bring the world the new TopSwing front mech, i wouldn't say it was better though.

 

[jimo746]

It was great to see Doddy talk passionately about "our" scene and not ridicule it (too much) and best of all, actually ride "our" bikes in anger.

Exactly

The M900 vs M950 spans less than a decade, look at how different the modern XTR is to either of those group sets, vastly. And I’d say shifting has improved, and braking, I guess aesthetics are a personal matter.