The pulley buzzes. BIKE reader Martin lets his fingers dance on the gear levers and shuffles the chain over the sprocket set. "One hundred per cent Shimano!" He is certain. Up at the front, down at the back, gear by gear, click, click, click. The first drops of sweat bead up on his forehead above his taped ski goggles. He is one of three readers taking part in the blind test on the roller.
Four groupsets from 315 to 690 euros. Shimano Deore and SLX as well as Sram X7 and X9. Although the testers know which groupsets are in the test, they do not know which of the otherwise identical hardtails they are fitted to. On the roller trainers, the task is to judge the shifting feel blindfolded. The test subject then has to make a guess as to which group it might be. A simple endeavour? You might think so. The surprising result amazed more than just our reader testers.
In the last Gearstick comparison in BIKE 3/2011 we still had to attest to the spongy and imprecise shifting behaviour of the X9 from Sram. It emerged from the test as the loser and also cost 160 euros more than it does today.
You can read below in the PDF download whether the Americans have taken our criticism to heart and how the four groups fare in a direct comparison.
BIKE is available here as a digital edition.
