Shimano Saint Shadow SS Short Cage Mech Review

Shimano Saint Shadow SS Short Cage Mech Review

I was attracted to the mech because it is short cage SS, and can take up to a 34 tooth sprocket ( and 32, 30 as well), with most short cages limited to 27 teeth, if you are running a single chain ring 27 teeth is not enough.

Shimano Saint Shadow SS Short Cage Mech - Price

This is an expensive mech at around £90 off of ebay, it took me a few weeks to pluck up enough stupidness to buy it. A cheaper option would be to get stronger and stick with an 11 - 28 rear cassette, which you could run a standard SS road mech with for £20. Still I just couldn't let it lie.

Shimano Saint Shadow SS Short Cage Mech - Setup

Now imagine my face when I got to adjust the indexing and there was no adjustment screw. Very odd, first time I have picked up an instruction book in years. You have to adjust indexing from the shifter, luckily my LX rapid fire shifters have an adjustment screws, so all was good, but check to see if you have them if not you will have to replace your shifters.

Shimano Saint Sahdow SS Short Cage Mech -Mode Convertor

I was a little confused what a mode convertor was before I got the mech, it is a small piece of metal which you can move in to position (x2) whilst using close ratio cassettes. If you are using a wide range cassette 11 - 30 11 - 32 11 - 34 then you can leave as is.

Shimano Saint Shadow SS Short Cage Mech -Mode Convertor

I was a little confused what a mode convertor was before I got the mech, it is a small pice of metal which you can move in to position (x2) whilst using close ratio cassetes. If you are using a wide range casstet 11 - 30 11 - 32 11 - 34 then you can leave as is.

It took me a bit longer to sort out the indiexing etc, than with a normal mech, but it was OK in the end.

Shimano Saint Sahdow SS Short Cage Mech - Performance

The mech keeps the chain very tight, that is the most noticable thing about it compaired with other rear mechs. The shifting is heavey very affirmative "ker-chunk" on the down shifts, and heavey (but smooth) on the upshift.

I am running a 1 x 9 and my chain used to hop of a fair bit, but 100 rides later no chain trouble as of yet.

15/05/12 - Update

The Saint SS mech has bean very good so far, obviously it needs to last a few years to warrent its cost, but it has been reliable and snappy. One of the reasons I went for an SS was to keep the gears up out of the spary a bit, this has not worked and they have got a muddy as ever.

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